Investor group warns livestock industry needs to do more on methane
Send a link to a friend
[December 01, 2021] By
Simon Jessop and Ana Mano
LONDON/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - A global push
to cut methane emissions and end deforestation is at risk of being held
back by weak corporate efforts in the livestock industry, an investor
group said on Wednesday.
More than 100 countries pledged to cut methane emissions 30% and halt
and reverse deforestation by 2030 at the COP26 climate talks, much of
which will need to come from the livestock industry. The UN food agency
said livestock accounts for 44% of man-made methane
https://www.fao.org/news/story/
en/item/197623/icode
emissions.
Yet less than a fifth of the world's biggest livestock producers
currently measure even some of their emissions, a report from the FAIRR
Initiative (FI), whose members manage more than $45 trillion in assets,
showed.
"As the largest driver of both methane from human activity and
deforestation, the ambitions set at COP26 handed a big slice of
responsibility to the food and agriculture sector," said FI Chair Jeremy
Coller.
"Yet failures from methane to manure management underline the growing
sense in the market that cows are the new coal."
In its fourth annual report, the group assessed 60 publicly listed
animal protein producers worth a combined $363 billion on 10
environmental, social and governance-related issues including emissions
and antibiotic usage.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Dec/01/images/ads/current/bennett_lda_123015.png)
Among those to score highly in the assessment were Norwegian aquaculture
firms Mowi ASA and Grieg Seafood, while the highest ranking meat and
dairy companies were Maple Leaf, Marfrig and Fonterra, all of which were
defined as "low risk".
Fellow large producers including the world's biggest meatpacker JBS SA
and Tyson Foods, meanwhile, were regarded as "medium risk", the report
said.
JBS dropped points for reasons including its reporting on animal welfare
and employee working conditions, while Tyson was marked down for reasons
including that some of its sourcing is from regions at risk of
deforestation, FAIRR said.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/120121pics/busine41.jpg)
A cow looks up from its feed at the Johann Dairy farm in Fresno,
California, U.S. September 10, 2020. REUTERS/Nathan Frandino
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Dec/01/images/ads/current/llm_lda_HFH_2021.png)
JBS and Tyson were not immediately available to comment when contacted by
Reuters.
The group makes the findings public so other investors can use them when they
analyse company performance and in their engagement with company boards.
The report also found that 42 of 45 meat and dairy firms which source soy for
animal feed from areas at high risk of deforestation, such as Brazil's Cerrado
region, do not have a policy to mitigate deforestation.
The cattle industry has also done a poor job in monitoring its broader supply
chain, the report said, and is currently missing up to 90% of the deforestation
caused by indirect suppliers.
Nearly a third
https://www.reuters.com/business/
sustainable-business/brazil-audit-finds-32-jbs-cattle-amazon-state-irregular-farms-2021-10-07
of the cattle bought by JBS in the Brazilian Amazon state of Para came from
ranches with "irregularities" such as illegal deforestation, prosecutors found
in a 2020 audit.
"The science is clear that to avoid runaway climate change high-emitting sectors
such as agriculture must transform themselves in the next decade. Yet FAIRR's
latest research shows how far the food sector has to go," said Eugenie Mathieu,
senior analyst at Aviva investors.
(Additional reporting by Caroline Stauffer; editing by David Evans)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2021/Dec/01/images/ads/current/thebee_lda_HFH_2021.png) |