Talking Sustainability Without Getting Burned

Sooner or later a customer, a neighbor or a buyer will ask what you are doing about the environment. If your answer is a slogan, you are in for an argument. If your answer is what you do and what you can prove, you will do fine. Here is a plain way to handle the carbon question without handing anybody a reason to call you a liar.

Why folks do not buy it

Plenty of businesses have slapped green claims on products and then been caught. The public has noticed. In 2023 the Environmental Working Group asked USDA to bar "low carbon" beef claims and to require independent checking of climate claims, arguing many "carbon neutral" claims lean on offsets that are hard to measure and not independently verified, according to its statement. You may think that group is off base on plenty. It still tells you what the skeptics will ask. So be ready.

Why "carbon neutral" is a risky phrase

Neutral means balanced. To say it, you would have to know what your herd puts out and what your land takes in, and prove it. Weather, soils and herd size change every year. Offsets, which are credits for carbon stored elsewhere, depend on measurement, how long the carbon stays put and whether it would have happened anyway. Our piece on carbon credit talk for cattlemen covers the contract side. For a customer conversation, the word is a trap.

Things you can say that hold up

• "We rotate cattle through paddocks and rest the grass." True, visible and easy to show.
• "We keep records on every cow and cull the ones that do not produce." That is efficiency.
• "We pick bulls on feed intake and growth numbers." See our page on breeding for lower methane for what is and is not known.
• "We test our soil and our water." Specific and provable.

Notice none of those promise a climate result. They describe work.

A short script

When someone asks, try this: "Here is what we do. Here is what we measure. Here is what we are still learning." Three sentences. Then stop talking and let them ask. Men who oversell lose the room. Men who answer plainly tend to keep it.

Do not borrow someone else's claim

The Angus name and the brand specifications are about beef quality, not carbon. The published CAB specifications cover marbling, age, size and appearance. Do not hang a climate claim on a breed or brand label. If a program offers a verified sustainability claim, learn exactly what it covers and say only that.

Backing it up

If you plan to put anything environmental on a package or a website, keep records. Grazing logs, stocking rates, soil tests, purchase invoices and dates all matter. Some claims can be audited through programs like USDA Process Verified, which applies to defined claims. Check with the agency or a lawyer before you print, because rules on environmental marketing are tightening in places, and a complaint can cost far more than the label.

For practical grazing improvements that pay off whether anyone is watching or not, ATTRA and farm.fm's page on rotational grazing techniques are good places to start.

What it comes down to

Good stewardship usually saves money, because better grass, healthier cows and fewer losses show up on the same sheet as profit. Talk about it that way: as how you run the place, not as a campaign. That message is honest and it stands up to questions.

Take the questions seriously, too. A person asking about methane or water use is not always an enemy; plenty of them are simply curious about where their food comes from. Invite them to see the place. A morning spent walking pastures with a skeptic does more than a hundred slogans, and it gives you a customer who has seen the truth for himself.

Keep a notebook that can talk for you

The easiest way to answer a hard question is to have the answer written down. Start with a plain notebook or a spreadsheet. Log the date cattle move into a paddock and the date they come out. Log stocking rate, rainfall if you track it, hay fed, mineral and feed bought, and why each cull left. After a year you can say, with a straight face, how many days your grass rested and how many cows you ran per acre. After three years you can show a trend. That is worth more than any slogan, and it helps your own decisions too.

Make the records easy to show. A single page that lists your practices, the numbers behind them and the dates will do for most customers and buyers. Hand it over when asked and say you would be glad to show them the pasture. Most people will not take you up on it, but the offer builds trust all the same.

Handling the hard questions

Someone is going to ask about methane. Do not dodge. Cattle do produce it, and you can say so. Then say what you do: breed for efficiency, keep cattle healthy and working, manage grass so it grows well and avoid waste. If you do not know an answer, say that and offer to find out. Nobody expects a rancher to be a climate scientist, but they do expect him to be honest.

Ranch and farm supplier listings are at Agriculture Directory. This site is independent and not affiliated with the American Angus Association or Certified Angus Beef. Rules on claims change, so check with the right agency first.