Is the Biosphere beef cattle project doing the best for a sustainable planet – and our health?
In recent times, grass-fed cattle raised on pastures as a human food source is receiving much attention in the beef industry as an alternative and sustainable solution to intensively-grown cattle raised on a grain-fed diet.
Locally, a concerted push for such practice is occurring within the UNESCO Noosa Biosphere Reserve, with the community indirectly – and perhaps unknowingly – providing some of the funding.
But is beef, however it may be fed, the answer for supplying an ever-growing human population with nutrition to sustain its future? The Food and Agricultural Organisation (a United Nations entity) says greenhouse gas emissions are highest from beef cattle of all ruminants.
Which leads to the question of whether grass-fed meat is as eco-friendly as claimed. The specialized digestive system of ruminants enables them to process hard-to-digest plant material high cellulose matter. ‘Cud’ chewing, cattle regurgitate and then re-chew their food, re-swallowing the cud which is then digested in the rumen by microorganisms.
The problem with this complex digestive process, called enteric fermentation, is that it releases exorbitant amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas thirty times greater than carbon dioxide as a heat-trapping gas.
Feedlot animals mostly consume grains – simple sugars that require no rumination to digest – but grass-fed ruminants emit up to four times more methane as ‘factory farmed’ animals.
So what’s best both for Noosa’s Biosphere Reserve and the human body? According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 14.5% of greenhouse gases derive from livestock. And Noosa Council’s website advocates reducing our own meat consumption to help kerb climate change.
It is evident that a western diet high in saturated fats and sugars is detrimental to human physiological well-being. A healthier and more balanced alternative is a more plant-based diet, similar to the Mediterranean diet.
It would seem that a good ‘Noosa Biosphere option’ would comprise locally and regionally grown produce – combating climate change whilst helping sustain a healthy body. Added to that, we live in the perfect environment to be physically active.
The mission statement of the Country Noosa organisation says its purpose is to promote “sustainable agriculture, horticulture and other rural enterprises in the Noosa Hinterland through field days, workshops, and social events to support and strengthen community cohesion.” This goal should be considered in terms of a 2014 survey by Country Noosa that estimated nearly half (48%) of agricultural land in the Shire was being used for grazing.
Country Noosa is currently working on a yearling beef and abattoir project in the Noosa Biosphere Reserve. This is funded by Noosa ratepayers through a circuitous route of Council levies, a Council funding deed with the Noosa Biosphere Reserve Foundation and an NBRF grant to Country Noosa.
But beyond the money, there’s an even more critical issue. Is this project consistent with Noosa Council’s own ambitious zero net emissions policy – targeted to deliver by 2026?
As a ZEN community partner, does Country Noosa’s project run contrary to this objective? What is the project’s strategy to offset the inevitable greenhouse gas emissions from increased beef production to achieve targeted zero net emissions?
Instead of a project that may have outcomes inimical to both the planet and to human health, would not a more Biosphere-friendly project be to convert some of Noosa’s cleared farmland into a more diversified and productive food bowl economy?
This would truly offer a more sustainable future in our Noosa Biosphere Reserve.
