Graig Producers (Wales & the Borders)

News Item

2010-04-09 - First Complete Carbon Footprint for Lamb April 2010

A 100gm serving of New Zealand lamb consumed in Britain carries a carbon "carbon footprint" equivalent to 1.9kg of carbon dioxide, new research shows. 80 per cent of that is generated by farmers and their livestock on-farm, with just 3 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions came from processing, and 5 per cent from transport, with the remaining 12 per cent down to retailers and consumers.

The New Zealand study is the first published carbon footprint to cover the entire life cycle from farm, through to cooking and eating the meat, and the disposal of waste and sewage.However, it would be hard to assess how carbon emissions for New Zealand lamb compared with overseas products, until there was a globally-agreed methodology for "footprinting".

A NZ meat industry spokesman said the overall breakdown of the carbon footprint for NZ lamb, and the high proportion of emissions on-farm were "in line with expectations". Ruminant livestock such as sheep "burp" large amounts of methane, and release nitrous oxide through their wastes. The lamb industry now had a science-based benchmark to measure further progress. "The biggest opportunity to reduce the lamb footprint is on-farm, and there is already considerable investment into research in that area."

Though NZ farms now produced slightly more lamb than in 2003, the national sheep flock was 43 per cent smaller, and this had reduced the carbon footprint of lamb by more than 20 per cent.

The full NZ report can be viewed in the "Members Only" area of this website, under the Guides section.