Embracing new aspects
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Regarding production improvements, a concept for neutralizing emissions from the integration of production components has been developed. It is an integration of livestock–forest systems (or silvopastoral) and farming–livestock–forest systems (or agrosilvopastoral)
[73,74][55][56]. The carbon-neutral meat (CNM) concept has the potential to contribute to sustainability studies that aim to mitigate the impacts caused by economic activities. In this case, the technologies for intensifying and implementing integration systems are available for all regions and their individual ecosystems
[74][56]. However, the issue to be addressed is the relationship between production performance and emissions
[75][57].
Programs such as organic beef cattle production have positive and competitive results for cattle production as they can facilitate the diversification of production methods and increase productivity
[76,77][58][59]. As a certain amount of carbon is emitted in feedlot manure handling systems, cattle diets and feed activities, these areas are the priorities of recent studies
[73,78][55][60].
3. A New Framework for the Topic
The clustering of sustainability categories and subcategories and the thematic synthesis of the literature led to the identification of new relationships and perspectives on sustainability in the beef cattle industry and yielded a new conceptual framework proposing new pillars of system-specific sustainability
[47,48,79][61][62][63]. Based on the knowledge collected, it was possible to understand better the relationships between the beef cattle industry and the objective of assisting in the search for sustainability. The principle of support of multiple disciplines is used for the present context
[77][59]. The beef cattle industry is a complex production system with different applications depending on the regional location of production, the selected production systems, and the characteristics of each entity and producer. The sustainability of the system can be determined by the feeding system and animal husbandry, with different factors such as soil use, type of interaction with the grassland and the use of confinement in the rural property. These characteristics make it challenging to study the determining factor of environmental sustainability of production.
In Brazil, beef cattle farming has three stages of production: breeding, rearing, and finishing. The three phases can be carried out on the same farm (full cycle) or different farms (partial cycle). Brazil’s beef cattle production systems comprise cow-calf; cow-calf and backgrounding; cow-calf, backgrounding, and feedlot; backgrounding and feedlot; and feedlot. The beef cattle production chain includes several stages of animal raising and fattening and involves multiple intermediaries. In addition to the direct purchases of calves and lean cattle from breeding and rearing farms, cattle transactions along the supply chain may involve other avenues, such as auctions and transactions between producers using the same system, among others. In other words, for each direct supplier, there may be several indirect suppliers. Brazil’s meat industry features complex business relationships, sometimes marked by distrust. This complexity substantially limits a more comprehensive system to track the entire meat supply chain for providing visibility over the entire system and socio-environmental monitoring
[80][64].
Like other industries, the beef cattle industry is subject to environmental regulations and growing social challenges. Properly designed environmental standards can trigger innovations that lower the total cost of the product or improve its value. Environmental improvement can benefit resource productivity, and process benefits have been reported
[81][65]. The beef cattle industry also undergoes wastage-related losses in natural resources (e.g., water and energy) and feed losses when storing and packaging
[82][66]. Contradictory environmental phenomena are also being reported in this industry.
The rising global demand for animal protein is intensifying livestock production systems. At the same time, societal concerns about sustainability and animal welfare in intensive systems are increasing
[38][67]. On the other hand, most Brazilian beef exports are live animals or raw meat, i.e., low-value-added exports, leaving little room for investments in productivity and the environment. Low-tech and extensive cattle ranching systems and investing little in land and pasture care or animal husbandry lead to pasture degradation. Inadequate soil management and low productivity will inevitably lead to more deforestation
[16]. Unless Brazil’s beef industry can transition from low-productivity, extensive ranching to more sustainable and intensified ranching, increasing production to meet rising demand could only be addressed by expanding the area for raising cattle, at the expense of the Amazon forest, which would not be acceptable to the global community. Adverse environmental effects of deforestation include biodiversity loss, land degradation, and increased emission of trace and greenhouse gasses. On the one hand, large tracts of forests have been cleared and converted into pastures for beef cattle ranching. On the other hand, pasture management for beef cattle ranching is typically extensive, with low external inputs and zero fertilizer use
[5].
Developing a more transparent supply chain in the Brazilian beef sector is a complex endeavor, requiring collaboration among all stakeholders in the beef and leather value chains, along with crucial support from government agencies. Without this support, deforestation caused by cattle farming is unlikely to decline. This process requires integrating cattle farming with crops, controlling the stocking rate (the number of animals per grazing area), engaging in regular analysis and correction of soil fertility, controlling weeds and pests, and rotating animals to allow pastures time to recover. Coordinating this with better genetics, more sustainable practices, improved soil and animal welfare, and easier access to water, cattle will grow faster—and younger cattle generate higher-quality beef and less carbon dioxide per kilogram of beef, leading to higher returns for producers. Because of their access to data from cattle producers, meat processors are in an ideal position to play a crucial role as they work with suppliers to establish a supply chain free of deforestation. Three large processors (JBS, Marfrig and Minerva) lead the market; the rest is more fragmented, adding complexity and making engagement more challenging. Meat packers can already trace the origins of their supply using a few available tools, but most of these fail to reach the level of indirect suppliers, where much of the deforestation occurs
[16,39][16][68].
The complexity of the economic, environmental and social relationships in agri-food sectors, like beef cattle
[83][69], needs expanding and holistic approaches beyond TBL modelling. The textual clustering and synthesizing thematic review of the representative literature on sustainability in beef cattle production generated knowledge for a new perspective.
This conceptual reasoning should be regarded as a part of the TBL model. The economic (profit), environmental (planet), and social (people) aspects commonly identified as the TBL have competitive issues involving the first two, i.e., economic (profit) and environmental (planet), also when studying beef cattle
[77][59]. The prevailing view is that an inherent and fixed trade-off is regarded as competitive: ecology (planet) versus the economy (profit). On the one hand, social (people) benefits arise from strict environmental standards and continue as a challenge. On the other hand are the industry’s prevention and cleanup costs that may lead to higher prices and reduced competitiveness
[81][65].
Hence, the system-specific approach to sustainability needs to be extended because technology, products, processes and customer needs are not fixed. These entities operate in a dynamic competition, pushed and pulled to find system-specific innovative solutions. The expanded system-specific framework can trigger properly designed environmental and social standards, which stimulate innovations
[81][65]. For these reasons, the TBL model should be extended with the pillars representing dynamic competition, i.e., technique (technological improvements), science (product and process improvements) and social (customer improvements). Since the literature review showed that the challenging pursuit of sustainability in the beef cattle industry relies on technique, science and social aspects, they should constitute the main pillars for integrated economic and environmental analysis of social challenges. The main conclusion of the qualitative review may be the starting point for particular conceptual developments in sustainability that consider the peculiarities of agri-food industries and producers to promote an integrated economic and environmental analysis model that also absorbs the social perspective.
The thematic synthesis pointed to the priority of technology and science for the sustainable development of production systems in the beef cattle industry, i.e., theme (4) employing technology and science. Therefore, the system-specific sustainability pillars for beef cattle production point to technique and science as primary competitive aspects in the beef cattle industry and make the most of the concept (the yellow and blue themes). It is worth noting that the pillars of technique and science are strongly intertwined, remaining in mutual dependence, as indicated by the intermingling of yellow and blue colors.
Beef cattle producers use technologies to improve animal performance and well-being and increase their enterprises’ profitability. The use of technologies in the beef industry is a major contributor to the safe, wholesome, and affordable beef supply
[84][70]. Nowadays, most improvement opportunities lie in new ideas and technologies to develop management practices, accuracy, and methods. Digital technologies may provide direct support for beef cattle producers. Several digital technologies are available for different animal species and form the basis for precision livestock farming. There are several possible digital improvements for cattle producers: using sensors for virtual herd tracking, promoting farming through virtual reality, nutrigenomics creating the opportunity for precision nutrition, drones helping to manage feedlots and ranches, robots performing daily feeding, blockchains offering traceability along the entire supply chain, artificial intelligence (AI) analyzing animals and market data for predictions, and augmented reality enhancing the vision to make better management decisions
[85][71].
Therefore, social themes are minor and, consequently, still the most challenging part of the concept. However, it seems that with the fulfilment of technical and scientific conditions, society will become the beneficiary of innovative environmental solutions in the beef cattle industry. Within the technical aspect, the theoretical models found can be adjusted to discuss the production systems used differently by beef cattle ranchers. Several studies highlighted management theory and its importance as a strategy that aims at efficiency and productivity, intending to achieve sustainability
[58,59,60][39][43][45]. Economics and environmental analyses using techniques and science transform the state-of-the-art into applied science. Each interconnection shows new perspectives to researchers, including theoretical aspects that can be used as indicators to compare entities. Results have been found linking technique and science to cost analysis related to transport and land, their management and aspects of forest legislation involving production. The production can be seen in terms of improvement of the herd, connecting it to sustainable grasslands and the food supplements used
[5,18,55][5][18][38].
From the intersection between technique and science, it is possible to discuss findings of the carbon footprints of production in different production systems. This relationship is based on the results of climate change, which may be a search input for better pasture management and better animal productivity
[4,59][4][45]. The technique and science aspects make it possible to achieve new steps in standardizing production systems. Extensive, semi-extensive and intensive systems have different levels of carbon footprints owing to their further use of natural resources. The same will happen when future work analyzes interconnections to determine better rural property management.
The social aspect comprehends standard policies among productive activities related to the development of a specific region
[58][39]. This reasoning can include determining characteristics such as land, property, and the social and economic profiles of the producer in the environment. Seeking changes to adapt to the new techniques and scientific discoveries of beef cattle production can be relevant in increasing the self-confidence of the property owners. The literature highlights property owners’ social characteristics as aspects of human beings
[6,58,59,60][6][39][43][45].
The framework may also guide sustainable beef supply chain management. A focus on supply chains is a step towards the broader adoption and development of sustainability since the supply chain considers the product from the initial processing of raw materials to delivery to the customer. It will become increasingly necessary for beef production systems to be structured for increasing traceability and bio-economical efficiency, decreasing environmental degradation
[20], and expanding the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades throughout the entire supply chain
[86][72].
However, each stage of the beef cattle supply chain faces different improvement opportunities. Cow-calf operators, who are the leading investors in depreciable assets and generate revenue from the breeding stock’s offspring
[45][73], should be concerned with integrated ranch management planning, optimized grazing and forage improvement, grazing land improvement, and improved wildlife habitat. Stockers, backgrounders, and feedlot producers, who regularly purchase cattle to sell the same animal later
[45][73], face other improvement opportunities. Stockers and backgrounders should be concerned with feed additives and supplemental nutrition to reduce methane production and increase digestive efficiency. Feedlot producers should be concerned with feed additives, feed composition, manure management and reuse
[86][72].
Beef producers need to have a comprehensive understanding of many factors if they wish to build and maintain a successful, sustainable business, including: sustainable pasture management; maintenance of biodiversity; soil and water management; the minimization of greenhouse gas emissions, offensive odors and dust; the efficient use of other resources such as fuel; good stock management, that considers animal welfare; responsible use of chemicals; property management planning, including good risk management with enterprise flexibility that enables adaptation to changing markets; good monitoring and recording systems which gather useful information about the enterprise and allow assessment of financial and environmental sustainability; good community relationships and perceptions; and air management
[87][74].