Q: Is red meat in Australia safe?
In Australia, beef and sheepmeat are produced by one of the most stringently controlled meat industries in the world. These controls are designed to guarantee that you receive safe, reliable and high quality beef and sheepmeat products.
Australia has an internationally acknowledged status of being free of all major epidemic diseases of cattle and sheep, including bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, also known as ‘Mad Cow’ Disease) in cattle and foot and mouth disease.
The majority of beef consumed in Australia is Australian product and countries wishing to export their beef to Australia must meet strict protocols to ensure that any beef products entering Australia are BSE free.
Find out more about these requirements
Find out more about beef imports into Australia
Q: What’s the connection between livestock and methane?
Cattle, sheep and goats are among the group of animals known as ‘ruminants’ (see below). When they chew their cud they burp out methane (CH4) releasing carbon into the air.
Q: What is a ruminant?
A ruminant is an animal that digests its food in two steps, first by eating the raw material and regurgitating it as a semi-digested form known as cud, then eating (chewing) the cud, a process called ruminating. Ruminants include:
- cattle
- sheep
- goats
- camels
- alpacas
- llamas
- giraffes
- bison
- buffalo
- European bison
- yaks
- water buffalo
- deer
- wildebeests
- antelopes
Q: How are these emissions measured?
Under international greenhouse accounting rules, only emissions are measured for the agriculture sector. Accordingly, the figures quoted don’t account for the full carbon exchange in landscapes.
Generally, livestock graze on the foliage of pasture plants leaving these perennial plants to develop root systems deep into the ground. Carbon is absorbed from the atmosphere by the plants as they grow.
Some of this carbon is stored in the leaves, stems and roots of the plants and some is stored in the soil, improving the soil’s health. (The process of absorbing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in plants and soil is called ‘sequestration’.)
Q: What happens to methane in the atmosphere?
Most carbon released into the atmosphere is in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). Ruminants release carbon in the form of methane (CH4). Methane is more potent than carbon dioxide but it is faster to oxidize in the atmosphere, producing carbon dioxide and water (H2O). It is still carbon and it’s all part of the natural carbon cycle.
Q: What’s the environmental impact of replacing red meat in our diet?
If we were to replace red meat protein with grains we would have to farm additional land mass equivalent to the size of Victoria and Tasmania combined. Land currently used for livestock production isn’t necessarily suitable for cropping or other agricultural activity.
Also, grain crops are annuals, not perennial plants. There is, therefore, very limited opportunity for crops to develop root systems that will sequester carbon into the soil.
Replacing beef with kangaroo meat has been suggested, however it’s not that simple. A cow produces ten times more meat than one kangaroo. Each year we process eight million cattle, to get the equivalent amount of edible kangaroo meat 80 million kangaroos would need to be killed every year. That’s 20 million more than the total Australian kangaroo population.
Q: What’s the health impact of replacing red meat in our diet?
Red meat delivers nutrients essential for health and wellbeing including: protein, iron, zinc, B vitamins, selenium, vitamin D, and long chain omega-3s. Independent research shows that red meat plays an important role in our diet.
Q: What is the red meat industry doing to make sure livestock production remains environmentally sustainable?
Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) has invested $6.1 million in research and development projects to address a range of issues relating to environmental sustainability.
Learn more about what the industry is doing to meet the challenges of climate change.
Q: Is MLA the only organisation doing work on this?
There are a number of research organisations that are investigating ways to continue delivering environmental solutions. These include CSIRO, the University of Sydney, the University of NSW, the Australian Greenhouse Office, and many more.
Q: Has there been much success to date?
According to the National Greenhouse Gas Inventory 2006, emissions from sheep and cattle have reduced by 7% since 1990, the Kyoto benchmark year and represent 9.9% of our total emissions.
Q: What’s being done to build the environmental gains made so far?
The issue of environmental sustainability is being addressed on a number of fronts. Currently, MLA is working on:
- increasing productivity – more yield per head
- a continuing program of tree planting (according to the National Farmers Federation, Australian farmers have planted in excess of 20 million trees)
- identifying a breeding trait to achieve feed conversion efficiencies (so the animals process their feed more efficiently)
- more precise management of the feed/demand ratio (so animals receive the optimal amount of feed)
- on-farm best practice natural resource management – particularly in the area of biodiversity, natural pastures and healthy ecosystems
Q: Is it possible to reduce methane emissions from cattle?
This is complex science because it will involve adjusting the way animals digest and process their food. MLA is conducting research into ways of reducing the methane emissions in livestock, particularly cattle.
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