The Carbon-Neutral Pig and Chicken: The Pivotal Moment is Now

“Your confusion is my confusion,” says Brett Kaysen, vice president of sustainability at the National Pork Board. “As an animal scientist, I am peppered daily to define sustainability. The United Nations would define it as a balance of economic, environmental and social concerns.”
“Your confusion is my confusion,” says Brett Kaysen, vice president of sustainability at the National Pork Board. “As an animal scientist, I am peppered daily to define sustainability. The United Nations would define it as a balance of economic, environmental and social concerns.”
(Pork Board)

Building trust in food begins with empowering farmers through one of the largest and most diverse conservation- and sustainability-focused public-private partnerships in our nation’s history: America’s Conservation Ag Movement. To find the latest news and resources related to the Movement, visit AgWeb.com/ACAM.


Installing solar modules. Injecting manure into the soil. Planting cover crops. Switching to LED light bulbs. Converting manure into energy. The list goes on and on when it comes to the number of ways pork and poultry producers are advancing conservation and sustainable farming practices in their operations. 

Admittedly that sounds good on paper. But do those factors fully capture what sustainability means to a livestock operation? 

“Your confusion is my confusion,” says Brett Kaysen, vice president of sustainability at the National Pork Board. “As an animal scientist, I am peppered daily to define sustainability. The United Nations would define it as a balance of economic, environmental and social concerns.”

The reality is that no universally accepted definition exists. Sustainability is defined by business owners and operators such as farmers as they see it through their eyes, Kaysen explains.

What Does It Mean to You?
For Sanderson Farms, the No. 3 poultry processor in the U.S., the term “sustainability” didn’t resonate early in its conservation journey.

“We didn’t like the term ‘sustainability.’ We thought it should simply be ‘responsibility,’” says Pic Billingsley, director of development and engineering for the company. “We've got a saying here that you can't manage what you can't see.”

In 2008, Sanderson Farms started looking more closely at its data, including natural gas and other utilities and products in its business that create emissions. Because they took the time to create a baseline, they can now evaluate what they've done to date to reduce their carbon footprint. 

“If you'd told me 30 years ago that we would be able to do this, it would at times have been a reach to me,” Billingsley says. “Now we've got systems in place that take the methane gas off of our anaerobic lagoon as part of our wastewater plant. Then, it goes through and cleans it up to a natural gas–a pipeline-quality natural gas that we can use in our facilities.”

And that’s where conservation becomes important. 

“Conservation to us means utilizing only that amount of natural resources that you absolutely have to have to do your business,” Billingsley says. “It’s simple. There’s nothing hard about it – you only take what you need.”

For other industry leaders, conservation and sustainability are synonymous. Farmers have to be environmentally sound, socially responsible and economically viable in order to be around for the future, and the terms capture those principles, says Ryan Bennett, executive director of the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry and Eggs and the International Poultry Welfare Alliance. 

“Conservation is usually focused more on that environmentally sound aspect of sustainability,” Bennett says. “But if what we're doing is not also socially responsible and economically viable, it's not possible to implement conservation practices. On the same hand, if we're not doing something that's environmentally sound, then we're not going to remain economically viable and be able to continue to produce poultry and eggs in a sustainable manner in the future.” 

An emphasis on conservation enables producers to both reduce impact today while also making decisions that will have beneficial outcomes for the poultry value chain in the future, Bennett explains.


Solar modules at Triple E Farms near Altona, Ill. Photo by Dan Erickson.

The Pivotal Moment is Now
Although transportation and energy use are the two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, according to 2018 data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, scrutiny is often placed on agriculture, which accounts for roughly 10% of emissions. Kaysen sees that as an opportunity for farmers to continuing be part of the solution.

“I'm not so sure that the pivotal moment in our journey to more sustainable livestock production isn't now,” he adds. “Whether or not you believe the wildfires in California are attributed to climate change, there’s no debate that the climate is changing. We know that people on this globe have an impact on the environment. But we also know if there’s ever been a time in the history of the world, now's the time where agriculture can be a part of the solution.”

Farmers have demonstrated they can capture and reduce carbon. In Kaysen’s mind, that’s a huge opportunity. 

“Since Day 1, farmers have had this continuous improvement idea, and we're committed to that. The beautiful thing for farmers in general is they can be part of the solution. But being part of the solution actually rewards them on farm, too,” he says.

The benefits extend beyond just economics. 

“I like the word “reward” because it can mean a lot of different things. Often, we default to ‘How am I going to make money?’ That's part of it, but there's other rewards. I think this is an opportunity for farmers to be seen as climate change heroes.” 


Sustainability and conservation efforts require your whole team working together, says Pic Billingsley. Photo by National Pork Board and the Pork Checkoff.

Carbon-Neutral Livestock Production
One of the topics bringing animal protein groups together is feed, Bennett says. Many resources go into creating feed for poultry and pigs. Bennett and his colleagues across the protein complex want to explore how farmers and the industry can make even better use of the resources used to make feed.

“We have a shared vision of improving sustainability within our respective programs, and we realize there are many things we can work together on,” Bennett says. 

The science and technology needed to reach these goals is still developing. Kaysen says improvements will require communication and collaboration. 

“I think the barnyard—dairy, poultry, beef, lamb, pork— realizes that we're stronger together than we are apart. We've got enough folks coming at us from the outside. We don't need to do that from the inside,” Kaysen adds. “I do think there's an opportunity for us to convene more often in a collaborative approach, while not disparaging each other.”

By 2035, Kaysen believes the pork industry can create a carbon-neutral pig. He applauds the dairy industry’s announcement on Earth Day this year to produce a carbon-neutral dairy cow by 2050.

“I think it’s bold, I applaud them for taking that step,” Kaysen says. “I think we'll have the opportunity to prove it at a high level that the majority of pigs in this country are raised in a carbon neutral or carbon negative way.”

Whether you raise chickens or pigs doesn’t matter, Billingsley says. What matters is your commitment to take a deeper look at the products and inputs you use on your farm and to only use what you need. Then, you must work to convey those values so they become important to everyone in your organization. 

“It's got to be a culture,” Billingsley says. “Your whole team has to understand that for your company to be good, this is the world we live in today. This isn't yesterday. The world today expects you to minimize your footprint on this earth.”

More from Farm Journal's PORK:

Two-Headed Consumer Demands Change from Farmers, Food Companies

Sprawling Urban Development Threatens Livestock Production

Consumers Speak Up: Sustainable Farmers Wanted

 

 

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