A massive hurdle arising as beef-producing nations grapple with methane reduction is the concept of 'leakage', where some do not take on the battle and therefore work from a much lower cost structure but sell into the same premium markets.
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Not only does it create an uneven playing field but it means all the hard work being done by one country could be quickly undone by others not pulling their weight.
This has been identified as a common thread of concern globally in a Churchill fellowship undertaken by industry analyst Simon Quilty.
Melbourne-based Mr Quilty, chief executive of Global AgriTrends, has just returned from a three-month trip through New Zealand, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland and the United Kingdom, looking at methane and GHG reduction schemes in livestock production.
While his primary aim was to investigate how other nations were incentivising and rewarding farmers who reduce emissions, he found a number of common threads of concern globally that he said kept coming up with no one realising everyone else had the same concerns.
Leakage was at the top of the list, but also noted was:
- The inability to extract a premium for carbon neutral or reduced methane meat at the retail level.
- The lack of a common form of measurement across countries, so 'apples can be compared with apples'.
- Farmers do not want liability with reduction schemes.
- Distrust by farmers of 'dodgy' schemes.
- Frustration by farmers with heavy regulations.
- No clear method of rewarding farmers for methane reduction.
- The four to five year election cycle, where a new government could reverse policies which would undermine investments.
Mr Quilty looked at policy research, spoke to the who's who of retail, processors, supermarket giants and fast food restaurants, along with government and private enterprise experts in the field.
He said what was very clear was that the heavy lifting had to be shared between industry and governments in order to get meaningful progress.
Leakage
Mr Quilty said the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development had just released a discussion paper on the concept of leakage with regards to beef and methane reduction, highlighting the same concerns his travels had identified.
The ability to measure leakage accurately is crucial, Mr Quilty believes.
"Many of my meetings have focused on measurement. Thanks to new technology, this measurement on a per-animal basis, and on a macro scale, for methane is now possible with some accuracy."
He said both a 'carrot and stick' approach was needed - both measures to incentivise farmers and regulation to enforce change.
In most countries, however, the stick was being overused, often with little or no market-based incentives.
"All through Europe, we met industry people marching in streets against this," Mr Quilty said.
Mr Quilty is now arranging follow-up meetings and will pen his report later this year.
He said his findings highlight that no single bullet will fix the GHG problem.
"The challenge of knowing who will pay the cost of reducing GHG emissions is an important question - along with how do we reward farmers for doing so," he said.
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