To buy or not to buy...

Cows, like all ruminants, produce methane gas during digestion of feedstuff. For this reason eating beef is not very climate friendly. But there are two sides to every story. In many countries, like Sweden, grazing livestock play an important part in keeping the landscape open and diverse. Permanent grassland provide habitat for flora and fauna and as we all know biodiversity is another very important part of sustainable development along with the climate. So assuming that me eating beef helps the Swedish landscape stay diverse (at least I tell myself that) I chose to take a look at some other important variables of organic meat production vs. conventional. After searching the web I found a LCA report (cradle to gate perspective) on organic free-range beef produced at a ranch outside of Lund (KC Ranch in Revingehed) and conventional beef (mostly inside in barns and to some extent kept in feed-lots) produced a little bit further up north in Sweden.

At KC Ranch the cows live outside all year round and graze a natural area (Revingehed) which is home to many migrating birds and rare species of insects. The cows require some forage during the winter months but eat no feed concentrate. The forage is grown on the farm using no pesticides or commercial fertilizer. The only fertilizer used is pig manure from a nearby farm. The owners inspect the livestock daily to make sure no animal become ill or injured. This is done on horseback and not with vehicles. In other words this is hard core organic farming!

So does this way of practicing farming pay off?

• Huge difference in energy use: At KC Ranch 10 MJ/kg bone free meat, at conventional farm 37 MJ/kg bone free meat. After reading other studies figures seem to shift between 30-50% less energy in organic production.

• Since livestock at KC Ranch graze outside all year round the energy use is low compared to chicken (20 MJ/kg bone free meat) and pork (23 MJ/kg bone free meat) as well.

• The biggest energy savings come from the lack of use of commercial fertilizer in organic farming. The making of commercial fertilizer is very energy intensive not to mention the long distances it has to be transported before reaching the farm. Illustration of energy savings: at the conventional farm 59 kg N/hectare (100m*100m). 45,8 MJ/kg N to produce the fertilizer. At KC Ranch 200 hectares are used for forage production. If commercial fertilizer would be used instead of pig manure 59 kg N/hectare*45,8 MJ/kg N*200 hectares = 540,440 MJ of energy!

• Pesticides are usually applied to crops which are used as feed concentrate for livestock. So by not using any of this KC Ranch avoided the release of 2.2-3.3 grams of pesticides for every kg of meat produced on the farm. Yeaj good news!

• Some evidence that free-range beef is healthier because it contains more omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 works a frost protection agent in herbs and grasses and by eating that instead of feed concentrate livestock consumes more of it. Omega-3 is known to decrease the risk of heart and cardiovascular disease, obesity, eye disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and possibly certain types of cancers.

• The downside of organic farming: Livestock is allowed to live longer since they grow slower on a natural grass and herb diet and hence release more GHG before being slaughtered. Also considerably larger areas are needed to support the livestock compared to keeping them in feed-lots. This, however, is not a problem at Revingehed with its big land.

• Another downside is that it’s harder to control the ratio between different nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen in manure compared to commercial fertilizer. Using pig manure leads to a small leakage of certain nutrients because the ratio cannot be optimized or controlled to match the crops’ needs.

All and all organically produced free-range beef seems to be the winner in organic vs. conventional farming and next time I feel like being a little luxurious and treat myself to a nice steak I will gladly pay extra to know that I am getting the best out of the worst choice of food (climate-friendly speaking of course)!