By Bob Moser
SAO PAULO — McDonald's expects Canada to become the first country to supply verified sustainable beef to the company in 2016, but other countries could still jump ahead during the coming year, with Brazil well-positioned to pull off the upset.
McDonald's announced in January it would begin sourcing verified sustainable beef for its hamburgers by 2016. The company is working with the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, the Canadian Cattlemen's Association and ranchers in the country to develop indicators and a third-party verification system process next year.
McDonald's selected Canada as the focal market for this pilot project after finding that its beef supply chain in the country was already streamlined, said Michele Banik-Rake, director of sustainability. The company has just one hamburger processing plant in Canada with two suppliers of beef, one of which is JBS SA, a key supporter of the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (GRSB), which announced on Monday its new global principles and criteria for sustainable beef production.
“It's not our intent to create a McDonald's standard, we want to work with ranchers in a collaborative process so that these indicators are something they will be comfortable with,” said Banik-Rake from the sidelines of the Global Conference on Sustainable Beef, held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Nov. 2-5.
“Our initial purchase (in 2016) may be small to start, because we don't know yet what the indicators and verification system (in Canada) will be,” she continued. “Once that is established, we'll have a better idea with the industry in Canada of what it will take to scale the process. We'll then set a target in 2016 with goals for 2020 on how much of our total (beef supply) will be verified sustainable.”
Because countries like Brazil, Colombia and Mexico also have roundtable groups attempting to develop sustainable beef criteria in 2015, McDonald's sustainability teams elsewhere in the world could beat out Canada in a race to deliver the company's first verified sustainable beef hamburger patties.
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Source: Meatingplace.com
Posted by Jami Howell
