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The US Producer: A Hero, Not a Villain

Earlier this week, the US animal agriculture industry once again came to the forefront of the "climate change" debate. As you can imagine, it was not being heralded as a beaming example of sustainability. Instead, it was being chastised as the cause of many environmental hardships. In addition to politicians and media, the Golden Globes got in on the action by serving a vegan meal to save the world. Personally, I am very happy these celebrities took their private jets all across the US to come together and sacrifice so much in one meal for the sake of the environment. They are truly the examples we need to follow.


Now obviously I'm being facetious, but it did force me to think about the source of this perception of agriculture. I believe it is a case of our sinful nature – not wanting to take responsibility for our own lives and actions. It is far easier to attack the 1.5% of the population who is raising the world's next meal, than to look in the mirror and make personal changes. Is it easier to criticize those I have never met than it is to critically examine my own actions? Absolutely. I would love to be able to blame the world’s problems on everyone else. Wouldn’t that be great? I’d never have to change my daily routine or accept the consequences of my actions. Unfortunately, this is what is happening to modern day agriculture. An overwhelming amount of the US population is no longer living on the farm. Thus, it is easier than ever to blame those who still are.

The real tragedy of blaming the US producer is not that we are incorrectly identifying a problem, but that we are ignoring a potential solution. The US pork industry, over the past 50 years, has reduced their environmental impact by using1:


Why? Because that is what farmers do. It is a natural position for them to take. They are charged with taking care of the planet and they are doing a phenomenal job in the United States. Last fall I was at a meeting with over 100 top decision makers for the industry. They were discussing how we can continue to reduce our carbon footprint in order to become carbon neutral. Farmers don’t become complacent. They continue to look to improve themselves and their farms – sustainability is at the heart of that. This isn’t unique to the pork industry. The sum of all US livestock production only contributes 4% of the entire United States’ carbon footprint2. On top of that, it is only methane gas being released which has a life span of 10 years in our atmosphere. Compare that to the carbon emissions from cars and planes – carbon can last for 1,000 years in our atmosphere – and I can tell you which one I prefer.


So what now? If US producers aren’t the environmental villains that our presidential primary candidates, media, and celebrities perceive them to be, then what are they? They are the solution. The US producer is putting out more food than any of country in the world and they are doing it with the least amount of emissions possible. Agriculture on a global scale still contributes 14% to total carbon emissions3, that’s a much bigger number. Can we fix it? Yes. Have we proven that here in the US? Yes. Do we proclaim this from the mountain tops and share our information with the world? No. We don’t because every day the producer is bettering the world, they are being told that they are ruining it. What if those same politicians, media members, and celebrities heralded the producers as heroes instead of villains. What if we said to the rest of the world, “Look what we have done! Let’s help you get to where we are.” I think that would be much more productive than giving speeches at award shows talking about other people causing problems.

In the book, Good to Great, it says that great leaders praise the people around them when things are going well but look in a mirror when things are bad. I think we can all apply this to our daily lives. Let’s look for the heroes of sustainability. Those who have made and are continuing to make great strides in protecting the environment. Then let’s look at our individual lives and see how we can make a personal, physical change to match that drive for a better world. In the United States of America, we have some of the best people sustainably feeding the world. It is about time we support and share the stories of these people with the rest of the world; not demonize them before we get back on our private jets.   


P.S. For some quick facts of on the sustainability of the US pork industry please visit porkcares.org

1 Retrospective Analysis of US Pork Production from 1960 to 2015 Using LCA. https://www.pork.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/16-214-THOMA-final-rpt.pdf. July 7, 2018

2 https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#agriculture

3 http://live-ccms.pantheonsite.io/sites/default/files/livestocks_contribution_to_climate_change_ facts_and_fiction.pdf

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