Life Beef Carbon Initiative

General

Name of initiative Life Beef Carbon Initiative
LPAA initiative Yes
NAZCA Initiative Yes
Website address http://www.interbev.fr/life-beef-carbon/?lang=en
Related initiatives
Starting year 2015
End year
Secretariat Jean Baptiste DOLLE, Chef du service Environnement-Bâtiment, Institut de l’Élevage (IDELE), 54-56 avenue Roger Salengro - BP 80039 - 62051 St Laurent Blangy, Tél : 03 21 60 57 91 / 06 17 67 21 14, e-mail: jean-baptiste.dolle@idele.fr

and Josselin Andurand, josselin.andurand@idele.fr, +332 22 74 03 84

Organisational structure
Geographical coverage Western Europe
Name of lead organisation Institut de L'Elevage
Type of lead organisation NGO/Civil Society
Location/Nationality of lead organisation France

Description

Description aims to promote innovative livestock farming systems and associated practices to ensure the technical, economic, environmental and social sustainability of beef farms
Objectives Reduce the carbon footprint of beef by 15% over the next ten years in France, Ireland, Italy and Spain.
Activities Establish a common beef carbon framework composed of innovative practices aiming at reducing GHG emissions and increasing carbon sequestration, through

1. an inventory of existing methodologies and practices, information sharing, harmonization, building a common GHG assessment methodology, updating advisory tools to allow comparison; 2. Involve 150 Training advisers (national and regional) and 170 innovative farmers, to build a common knowledge/base; 3. Create a demonstrative observatory composed of 2,000 beef farms, taking part in the first carbon assessment actions operated at such a scale; 4. Build a network of 170 innovative farms to test/apply/promote innovative techniques to reduce GHG emissions and increase carbon storage. Development, monitoring and promotion of beef farms with a low carbon footprint; 5. Establish national/EU carbon awareness and mobilization building on an EU beef carbon farmers’ network, allowing exchanges between farmers and advisers in the 4 countries; 6. Develop French/Irish/Italian/Spanish national BEEF CARBON ACTION PLANS, and a relevant partnership strategy for other national and UE levels. These action plans will demonstrate to the beef value chains the interest and feasibility of this approach aiming at reducing the beef carbon footprint by 15% in 10 years. Institut de l’Élevage (IDELE) and the Interprofession du Bétail et de la Viande (INTERBEV), and includes 6 Chambers of agriculture, 5 cooperatives, 4 beef recording organizations from France ; Teasgasc and Bord Bia from Ireland; CRA and 2 producer associations from Italy; ASOPROVAC and 2 producer associations from Spain

One or two success stories achieved Several farmers have been sensibilized to global warming and GHG emission and mitigation and have been interviewed by several medias. Here is the testimony of Mary-Jo Beauchamp, breeder of cattle and sheep in Saône et Loire (France), having already tested the GHG and environmental diagnosis CAP’2ER on his farm :

"This diagnosis first requires to collect a great number of data on the herd, manure management, feed and food surfaces dedicated to the flock ... In the end, it is very interesting to understand where each greenhouse gas are emitted, to identify our levers for action. In our example, we can progress by producing our own plant proteins such as alfalfa or by saving on fuel consumption by direct seeding. This tool can also calculate some of our positive contributions to the environment. So in my case, my 100 ha of permanent grassland and 17 km of hedgerows store 90 000 kg of carbon per year and help offset 40% of emissions of greenhouse of my breeding. I am also maintaining the equivalent of 290 ha of biodiversity." We made some conferences in the two main French farming events in 2016 : the “SPACE” in Rennes (September 2016) and the “Sommet de l’Elevage” in Clermont Ferrand (October 2016). A lot of interested farmers, teachers, political deciders and students were attending to this conferences. In front of this first success we will make an annual conference on this two events in order to present the evolution year by year. After the communication and the first results we had in 2016, agriculture colleges and high schools were greatly interested in the project. We created an initiative with 9 French agriculture colleges in order to inform directors, teachers and student of the evolution of the project. We build for the teachers a database of slideshows and movies on GHG mitigation in beef production. In front of the strong demand, we planned to run CAP’2ER tool with the student during dedicated courses by the end of the project (starting hopefully in 2018). In the other member countries please contact the focal structures : ASOPROVAC, TEAGASC and CREA.

Monitoring and Impacts

Sustainable Development Impact:
E SDG goals icons-individual-rgb-13.png  
Function of initiative Implementation, Technical dialogue
Activity of initiative Goal setting (ex-ante), Knowledge dissemination and exchange, Knowledge production and innovation
Indicators
Goal setting (ex-ante) — Stakeholders who have committed to the goals
Year2018
Value (#)16
Goals The project goals to develop a BEEF CARBON ACTION PLAN, aimed at reducing beef carbon footprint by 15% over 10 years in 4 major and contrasting countries producing beef in Europe: France, Ireland, Italy and Spain.

The objectives of the initiative concern: 1. Inventory of existing methodologies and practices, information sharing, harmonization, building a common GHG assessment methodology, updating advisory tools to allow comparison. 2. Construction of a common beef carbon framework composed of innovative practices aiming at reducing GHG emissions and increasing carbon sequestration, 3. Training advisers (national and regional) and innovative farmers involved in the project, to build a common knowledge, 4. Creating a LIFE BEEF CARBON demonstrative farm observatory composed of 2,000 beef farms, taking part in the 1st beef carbon assessment actions operated at such a large scale, covering several production contexts, 5. Construction of a network of 172 innovative farms to test/apply/promote innovative techniques to reduce GHG emissions and increase carbon storage. Development, monitoring and promotion of beef farms with a low carbon footprint, 6. Establishment of national/EU carbon awareness and mobilization based on a EU beef carbon farmers’ network, allowing exchanges between farmers and advisers in the 4 countries, and a feedback from farmers on the acceptability/feasibility of the BEEF CARBON ACTION PLANS relying on the innovative techniques tested at farm level, 7. Development of national French/Irish/Italian/Spanish BEEF CARBON ACTION PLANS, and a relevant partnership strategy for other national and UE levels. These ACTION PLANS will demonstrate to the beef value chains the interest and feasibility of this approach aiming at reducing the beef carbon footprint by 15% in 10 years.

2015-2018 • Elaborating and sharing a common EU BEEF CARBON framework • Developing carbon tools to evaluate GHG emissions, beef carbon footprint and decision making tools used by farmers and advisors at farm level, • Assessing GHG emissions on 2,000 demonstrative beef farms, corresponding to different production systems (different livestock, crops, grassland management, soil types, weather conditions…) and creating a European database and farms observatory in 4 countries.

2018-2020 • According to the results in the innovative and demonstrative farms, identifying technics of mitigation of the GES. • Applying a carbon mitigation plan in innovative beef farms • Building a European network including 150 advisers and 172 innovative farmers • Doing an economic and social feasibility analysis for carbon plan implementation at beef production level

2020 • Creating 4 BEEF CARBON ACTION PLANS for France, Italy, Ireland and Spain, describing the technical mitigation action plans and the advisory strategy to develop at national/European level

Comments on indicators and goals
How will goals be achieved
Have you changed or strenghtened your goals
Progress towards the goals
How are you tracking progress of your initiative Created Beef Carbon Action Plans in 4 countries Spain, France, Italy and Ireland. Stakeholders committed to the goal of 15% reduction: 16

The project has not been yet deployed on the farms with mitigation plans. But the tools are ready to monitor on the farms the quantitative impacts of the LIFE BEEF CARBON project. The project has not been yet deployed on the farms. We will follow this financial indicator starting with the first farms assessments.

Available reporting We have a dedicated website, our first newsletter will be published by the end of 2016. Some movies, slideshows and articles have been produced reporting the advances of the project.

http://idele.fr/reseaux-et-partenariats/life-beef-carbon.html http://www.interbev.fr/ressource/beef-carbon/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdVeH7rA8CM http://www.la-viande.fr/webtv/environnement-ethique/programme-beef-carbon http://www.la-viande.fr/environnement-ethique/cop21/beef-carbon

Several initiatives have been conducted in the other countries : http://asoprovac.com/11-paginas-estaticas/4437-proyecto-life-beef-carbon

Participants

Participants Number Names
Members 16  
Companies 0
Business organisations 16 CFBCT (France),  CNTF (France),  Confederation Paysanne (France),  COOBOF (France),  COOP de France (France),  CR (France),  Culture Viande (France),  ELVEA (France),  FBHF (France),  FCD (France),  FFCB (France),  FNB (France),  FNC (France),  FNEC (France),  Federation Francaise des Marches de Betail vif (France),  Federations Nationales des Exploitants d'abattoirs (France).
Research and educational organisations 0
Non-governmental organisations 0
National states 0
Governmental actors 0
Regional / state / county actors 0
City / municipal actors 0
Intergovernmental organisations 0
Financial Institutions 0
Faith based organisations 0
Other members 0
Supporting partners 2 LIFE (France),  Casdar (France)
Number of members in the years
2018
16
Have only national states as participators No


Theme

Transport Agriculture Forestry Business Financial institutions Buildings Industry Waste Cities and subnational governments Short Term Pollutants International maritime transport Energy Supply Fluorinated gases Energy efficiency Renewable energy Supply chain emission reductions Adaptation Other Resilience Innovation Energy Access and Efficiency Private Finance
No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Last update: 24 July 2019 08:48:26

Not only have national states as participators