Affluent, environmentally conscious consumers who purchase beef are attracted to advertised “grass-fed” product in high-end supermarkets despite a higher cost compared to conventional beef. Claims for sustainability and higher levels of environmental compliance are unsubstantiated. A recent study by the Breakthrough Institute has disclosed that pasture-finished beef is less sustainable and has a higher carbon footprint compared to conventional grain-finished beef held in feedlots. The findings of economists Daniel Blaustein-Rejto were published on December 13th with results from 100 beef operations in sixteen nations.
It was demonstrated that pasture-finished operations produced 20 percent more greenhouse gases than grain-finished beef animals. With soil carbon sequestration and carbon opportunity cost incorporated in the comparison, pasture-finished operations produce 42 percent more carbon dioxide equivalent with the differential attributed to the impact of land use.
It is noted that the demand for extensive grazing is a major driver for deforestation in Brazil. Rainforest that is illegally logged and clear cut in various states including Rondônia is used to graze cattle that enter the beef supply through a complicated and often fraudulent system of identification of farms of origin to circumvent an imperfect systems of tracing.