Beefing Up Sustainability: The Competitive Advantage of Certified Angus Beef

How does Certified Angus Beef define sustainability?

KN: It means doing the right thing by caring for the entire supply chain — from the cattle and the environment to the places where our high-quality beef is raised and sold — and uniting everyone around core values of sustainability.

Raising high-quality beef doesn’t just happen by chance. It takes intention, and attention to the details and decisions that ultimately result in a premium product and sustainable farm or ranch. That’s why we’ve chosen as a brand to focus on three key areas: cattle care, the environment and people.

How is this message conveyed at the point of sale?

KN: We make it easy for consumers to quickly see our dedication to humane animal care and climate-friendly practices right at the meat case. The tools include stickers for retailers to feature on packages, case clings, dividers, signage and QR codes that drive consumers to our resources to further tell our story.

If a consumer wants to go deeper, they can visit our consumer website and follow us on social media, where we share stories from farmers’ and ranchers’ perspectives and talk about our sustainability initiatives.

Did You Know? Certified Angus Beef’s Impact Through the Working Grasslands Conservation Initiative:

• Certified Angus Beef helped support the protection, restoration, and enhancement of 510,802 acres of wetland, grassland, and cropland in the Prairie Pothole Region.
• Protected and restored 40,216 acre-feet of annual water storage from drainage, equivalent to 19,822 Olympic swimming pools of water storage every year.
• Prevented the emissions equivalent to the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by 41,313 passenger cars in a year.
• Reduced soil erosion and prevented the release of 29,824 kilograms of phosphorus per year, enough to fertilize 13,494 acres of corn or 18,664 acres of a golf course annually.

Do you have examples working to educate retailers?

KN: We’ve taken retailers to local farms within their region to meet the families raising the cattle and to learn more about what sustainability looks like out in the field. The discussions that unfold give them the confidence and first-hand experience to talk about how beef is raised, to answer their customers’ questions and to sell our brand, and beef in general. We work to customize what we do with each of our retail partners to meet their needs.

Share a few key examples of programs that invest in the farming and ranching communities to help further the sustainability of beef.

KN: First, farmers and ranchers are doing a tremendous job producing beef sustainably. Today, our beef community is raising more high-quality beef with fewer resources than ever before. But, we know there are ways we can always continue to improve. Starting with cattle care, we are involved with the Beef Quality Assurance program — a national certification standard for cattle care, traveling around the country and providing continuous education for cattlemen and women.

Switching over to the environment, our Land Stewardship program partners with the Noble Research Institute who are experts in soil health and land management. We offer a free, online course that teaches how to achieve healthier soil, more resilient grazing land and greater profitability through better land management, reducing inputs and optimizing natural resources.

Finally, the Working Grassland Conservation Initiative is a collaboration with Ducks Unlimited. How are ducks and cows connected? What’s good for the herd is good for the bird. Ducks need healthy grasslands and clean water resources, and so do cows! If we do things right from a land management standpoint, then the cows, the waterfowl, and other biodiversity are all going to thrive.