Nineteen consumer, environmental and animal welfare groups says the criteria proposed for a Sustainable Beef project are “fundamentally flawed” and fail to address issues such as use of antibiotics as a growth promotant in cattle. In a letter, the groups say the guidelines developed by the Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, which includes fast-food giant McDonald’s, meatpacker JBS and drugmaker Elanco, do not address manure management, livestock confinement practices and worker rights. Nor do the critieria “provide any credible framework for measuring, indentifying or verifying ‘sustainability’ in beef production,” says the letter. Signers included Friends of the Earth, Consumer Reports and Food and Water Watch.
The Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef released its principles and criteria early this month as part of a meeting Sao Paulo. The group says its definitions “provide clarity to discussions about sustainability that have been nebulous in the past.” GRSB describes itself as global, mulit-stakeholder initiative.