Review of GHG and Water in the Red Meat Industry - Report 1

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and carbon sequestration related to red meat production arise from a multiplicity of sources throughout the supply chain, with each being governed by specific conditions related to animal production, soils, manure and effluent, vegetation and fossil fuel energy usage. All these factors are influenced by variations in climate and management. As yet, many of the specific scientific research areas are still under development or are yet to be investigated under Australian conditions. With such a broad scope, estimating emissions and defining research targets is a challenging task for the industry. This is further complicated by the range of estimation frameworks that are used by different sectors for their own purposes. Moreover, because GHG emissions are very difficult and costly to measure, most of these frameworks depend on estimation equations and emission factors that are inflexible and not specific to Australian climate or management conditions. This review covers methodological issues related to GHG estimation in the red meat supply chain and reviews the literature available for GHG emissions from red meat and alternative protein sources. Two additional technical reports cover the specific issues of enteric methane generation and mitigation (report 2), and emissions related to soils and manure (report 3).