Aware of the environmental challenges facing our society, the sectors are allocating significant resources to achieve the objectives established by the European Commission and reach a neutral climate impact of their activity by 2050, both in terms of GHG emissions and impact on soil, water or air. .
June 5, 2023. The Spanish livestock-meat sector joins the celebration of World Environment Day and renews its firm commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) established by the United Nations. At the same time, he wants to value the continuous work that farmers and industries are doing to improve their processes and techniques day by day, seeking the environmental, social and economic sustainability of their productions and progress towards environmental neutrality and circularity, according to highlighted the Meat and Health Platform.
The sectors are perfectly aware of the environmental challenges that our society faces in all its activities and for this reason they are working and allocating significant resources to achieve the reduction targets established by the European Commission and reach a neutral climate impact of their activity by 2050, both in GHG emissions as well as in impact on soil, water or air.
All this work is reflected in initiatives of the sectors with scientific and technological centers to achieve specific and measurable objectives as:
- 15% reduction in the carbon footprint in the beef sector.
- A 47% reduction in ammonia emissions and a 54% reduction in methane emissions in the pig sector.
- Savings of up to 30% in the use of water for each kilo of meat produced.
- Promotion of sustainable production of rabbit, lamb and poultry meat.
- Research into more efficient livestock feed with a lower environmental footprint.
- Implementation of 2,377 packaging ecodesign measures in the meat industry from 2012 to 2022, which has resulted in savings of more than 18 million kilograms of raw materials, according to the latest data from Ecoembes. In 2020-21 alone, the industry avoided the emission of 111,145 tons of CO2 with these measures.
The different types of livestock are an example of a circular economy, with activities such as the use of by-products of plant production intended for human use for livestock feeding, or the efficient management of manure and slurry as by-products with significant agronomic utility as organic crop fertilizers. It must be remembered that 50% of the fertilizers used on vegetable crops around the world are of animal origin (according to the FAO), which limits the use of chemical fertilizers.
Grazing livestock provides not only ecosystem support services such as biodiversity conservation and nutrient recycling, but also regulation services (carbon sequestration, fertilization, seed dispersal, contribution to pollination, forest cleaning, and prevention of forest fires and control of water flow and soil erosion).
The livestock-meat sector makes it possible to maintain important ecosystems that would not be viable without their livestock use, such as the pastures in the case of the Iberian pig or the traditional grazing of sheep, goats and cattle in pastures and mountain areas, which are linked to the promotion of biodiversity and the conservation of natural spaces. Many of these surfaces cannot be used for agricultural production for human food use.
Social, territorial and economic sustainability
In Spain, according to the FAO, more than 2.5 million people depend on the livestock-meat chain as a way of life, which has great social and economic significance. The maintenance of livestock activity in rural areas generates economic activity and energizes socially and occupationally many areas of Spain at risk of depopulation.
Livestock activity is carried out in more than 350,000 farms throughout the country that make a contribution of 16,000 million euros to Final Agricultural Production, to which are added the 31,727 million euros generated by the meat industry with its activity.
With this production, Spain’s food sovereignty is ensured with regard to meat and has also allowed the sector to contribute a value of 9,986 million euros to the Spanish trade balance by exporting to markets around the world in 2022.