Beef farmers against climate change
The ambitious European project Life-Beef Carbon’s primary goal is to identify, demonstrate and disseminate good innovative practices in farm to significantly reduce the carbon footprint of beef by 15% by 2025. The Life-Beef Carbon project was selected as a Agricultural six strategic actions of the Action Agenda Lima-Paris Climate Change Conference COP 21 in Paris.
At European level, coordinated by the Institut de L’Elevage (France), and participate Teagasc (Ireland), Idele (France), CRA (Italy). ASOPROVAC in Spain coordinated the project and its partners are ASOPROVAC Castilla and Leon and Agrifood Consulting Integral (AINTA).
Specific project objectives
One by one, covering several areas. an inventory of existing methodologies and practices, information sharing, harmonization, building an assessment methodology common greenhouse gases will be made. advisory tools will also be updated to allow comparison and construction of a common framework bovine composed of innovative practices aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and increase carbon sequestration.
For it is to train 150 national and regional advisers and some 170 innovative farmers involved in the project and construction of a common knowledge. In addition, an observatory of some 2,000 cattle farms pilot involved in carbon stock assessment scale that spans multiple production systems will be created.
Also provides for the construction of a network of 170 innovative test, deploy and promote innovation of techniques to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and increase carbon storage farms. Development, monitoring and promoting cattle farms with a low carbon footprint.
In short, it aims to establish a national and European consciousness carbon and mobilization based on a network of producers of cattle that allows exchanges between farmers and advisers in the four participating countries, and feedback from farmers on the acceptability and feasibility of the carbon action plan for beef based on innovative techniques tested farm.
Among the objectives are the development of the National Plan of Action Carbon in cattle and collaboration strategy relevant to other European countries. These action plans demonstrate the value chains beef interest and feasibility of this approach for reducing the carbon footprint in cattle by 15% in 10 years. In Spain it has been proposed to work on a total of 127 farms in areas of Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y Leon, Basque Country and Extremadura.
Source: ASOPROVAC
