McDonald's announces purchase of sustainable meat Amazon

São Paulo - A pioneering program in Brazil that seeks to make livestock farming in the most productive Amazon, less emitting greenhouse gases, less desmatadora - and because of that, more sustainable - received in the morning on Wednesday, 17, a market support that can help expand this type of initiative in the region.

McDonald ?? s network, which traditionally did not buy from the biome meat in a policy of not supporting products that could have been obtained from the forest deforestation, announced on Wednesday an agreement to buy 250 tons of meat provided by Bevilaqua farm in Alta Floresta (MT), which is part of the New Course program.

It is still a small fraction of close to 30 000 tons that McDonald ?? s demand for years, but according to Leonardo Lima, director of Sustainability Arcos Dorados (the company that manages the group in Latin America), the commitment is to increase this year to buy the year and build step by step the new chain.

At least two other New Field farms have also been audited by the group and are considered able to provide meat for the fast food chain.

"Our commitment in Brazil and in the world comes from longtime not buy anything that may come from affected natural areas. But we realized that turn their backs on degraded areas and take our map is not the best option. The commitment zero deforestation follows, but we also have to encourage the recovery of areas so that you can increase production with less area, "said Lima exclusively to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo.

"We believe the support will enable this type of project receives more attention and can help change the pastoralist culture. Usually he also believes that when you pasture the cattle eat, when you water the cattle drink, production is low and it always need to open more areas to place pasture after the former has deteriorated. This project we are supporting is the contrary, is to produce more with less area. the farmer becomes a farmer, you create opportunities for their cattle with food and water set "he says.

Intensification

The New Course was launched in 2012 as an initiative of the NGO Instituto Centro de Vida (ICV) to help control deforestation in Alta Floresta, most livestock polo in northern Mato Grosso that had a few years earlier, thickened the list of municipalities deforestation leaders in the state, eventually being embargoed by the federal government.

The understanding was that the boycott from deforestation meat - as it happens since 2009 when the top three slaughterhouses in the country (JBS, Marfrig and Minerva) have committed to not buy from suppliers that desmatassem - is important, but not sufficient because that leaks. illegal producers can also sell to other smaller refrigerators that do not respect this agreement. I had to try something different, make the farmer also gain something more with legality.

The pilot project with 14 landowners, began helping to restore degraded pastures and permanent protection areas (APPs) that had been deforested.

Then, in a plot of 30 hectares, it has implemented a technological package of Embrapa of good farming practices. The interest for the owner was not only the possibility to rectify before the law, but also increase your productivity.

Traditionally low throughout the Amazon, reaching less than one animal per hectare in the state of Mato Grosso, the pasture occupation average in High Forest is slightly higher, 1.22 animal unit (one AU is equivalent to 450 kg liveweight ) per hectare, but the value is still considered low. In stepped areas of each farm, stocking, after 1.5 year program, it reached 2.71 on average.


The work leading to a reduction in the slaughter time, going from an average of 44 months to 30 in males and 34 to 24 in females. Productivity increased from 4.7 kilos per hectare per year (average state) to 20.8 in stepped areas.

With all this, profitability improved compared to the traditional system, from an average gross income of R $ 100 / ha to R $ 975 in stepped areas.

"We showed in practice that cattle could be different, that the intensification in the Amazon was feasible. The next challenge was to see if had expandability," explained Francisco Beduschi, initiative coordinator at ICV.

Since 2014, the program has involved 40 farms in various stages of intensification.

What was a pilot won a jump with the entrance in the middle of last year, the company Pecsa (Amazon Sustainable Livestock), which, raising money abroad, expanded the scale of the work.

Instead of recovering only a portion of the property, they expanded the task for the entire farm. The first was Bevilaqua, who was already in the project from the start and won a comprehensive reform in its 600 hectares.

Laurent Micol, head of governance and investments Pecsa explains that when entering a farm, the company temporarily takes over the management of the property. Last year they made the reform of 1,800 ha, and already this year will jump to 8,500. It is expected in these areas down between 35,000 and 40,000 animals per year.

"But we are still talking of just over 10,000 hectares in a region that has 4 million hectares of degraded pastures. We want to reach 100 thousand ha in less than six years. Still is small but has a multiplier effect," he said.

The gains are even more impressive. According to him, Bevilaqua productivity average jumped to 35 kilos / ha / year. It was then closed an agreement with JBS for the sale of meat produced in the Pecsa model. It is the refrigerator that will provide for McDonald ?? s.

emissions

Besides the economic interest, the initiative has proved to have a significant impact on the climate. Today farming is the second largest source of the country's greenhouse gas emissions - because of methane coming out in livestock enteric fermentation, slightly behind deforestation. Put more cattle in the same space, with good practices that reduce the time to slaughter reduces this contribution.

An analysis of Imaflora on the pilot project calculated that emissions fell 20% per hectare of grazing properties. The reduction is even more significant if one considers the emissions per kilo of meat produced - which is the ultimate goal: to produce more emitting less. In this case, as the production efficiency increased about 2.5 times, there was a 60% reduction in emissions per kilogram of meat.

"In areas where we manage the comprehensive reform, a reduction of emission of 40% per hectare and 90% in the kilo of meat produced. That is why we believe it has to gain scale. Few sectors have such great potential to reduce emissions" , Mico said.