The positive impacts of food sustainability schemes run by Bord Bia were recently highlighted to those involved in meat production in Ireland.
The data, was presented by Bord Bia’s senior agri sustainability manager, Mick Houlihan, in the Origin Green progress update report 2023 at the Bord Bia Meat Marketing Seminar 2024, which took place at the Killashee Hotel, Naas, Co. Kildare, on Friday, January 19.
The Origin Green quality assurance (QA) schemes, include the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS) and the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS).
Houlihan said that there was a 8% average reduction in the carbon dioxide (CO2) per unit of beef from members of SBLAS.
Under the SDAS, Houlihan said that there has been a 9% average reduction in CO2 per unit from participating members.
Number of Origin Green farmer members per sector:
- Beef and sheep- 60,425;
- Dairy- 15,962;
- Pig- 355;
- Poultry- 552;
- Egg- 239;
- Horticulture- 260.
Between 2012 and 2023, Houlihan revealed that Origin Green member companies have set a total of 3,622 sustainability targets and established 15,390 initiatives.
Sustainability
Houlihan detailed the challenges that company members would be met with in sourcing the production of sustainable food, that included:
- Animal welfare verification;
- Supplier greenhouse gas emission factors;
- Sustainability activation with suppliers;
- Deforestation free supply chains;
- Regenerative agriculture.
A beef and dairy double materiality assessment will be required to complete accuracy in an approach to sustainability reporting.
The company’s effect on people and the environment and the effect external factors can have on a company are two elements that must be considered in the assessment, which the Origin Green team will engage with stakeholders to develop for the beef and dairy sectors.
An objective of Bord Bia is to “leverage the data generated through Origin Green to establish robust regenerative agriculture credentials” for Irish production systems “aligned with international frameworks”.
Aims for 2024
Among the aims in the Origin Green standard is the further development of the AgNav platform, which Houlihan said will involve the improved functionality of the framework and to establish a stakeholder group to gather feedback of the platform.
Bord Bia, Teagasc and the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) collaborated to create AgNav, a sustainability support framework which utilises the three agencies’ collective knowledge, data, support tools and other resources, to enable delivery against Climate Action Plan targets for the agri sector.
New features of the AgNav platform regarding the finishing age of animals have been included, with the development also set to include the addition of concentrate use and feed additives, and the aim of integrating the fetiliser database to the platform in the future.
There is set to be updates made to the Farm Sustainability Learning Hub, with the addition of new beef, lamb and dairy welfare modules set to be launched in the middle of February.
With currently 9,400 users and over 5,060 modules completed on the hub, there will be a farmland pollinator module expected to be launched by the end of February and an update to the existing Teagasc MACC module, as per the new 2023 MACC launch is also expected.