Canada is set to become the first market to supply its McDonald's restaurants with proven sustainable beef as part of the company's drive to improve its environmental credentials.
McDonald's announced in January it would begin sourcing only verifiable sustainable beef in 2016, and the multinational company is now in talks with Canadian beef producers about them being the first to be certified to provide it.
McDonald's Canada already sources all of its beef from Canadian suppliers.
Alberta is to play a crucial role in the pilot supply project. The province is the heart of Canada's beef industry, home to about 40 per cent of the national cattle herd and about 80 per cent of the country's beef processing.
The Canadian Cattlemen's Association, Alberta Beef Producers and other industry players have been meeting McDonald's Canada officials to discuss how a sustainable supply chain can be put in place.
"McDonald's ... has made the commitment to begin purchases of verified sustainable beef, beginning by 2016 - and likely from Canada," McDonald's Canada spokesman John Gibson said.
"It appears Canada is the first" market to begin concrete work on sustainable supply, he said.
Fawn Jackson, manager of environment and sustainability for the CCA, said Canada's animal welfare standards made it a "natural fit" for a pilot project.
"We really are global leaders in this area."
Canada's new Verified Beef Production program upholds food safety standards during processing, she said, and checks on other areas including animal care and biodiversity were being added to it.
"We've got all the building blocks right here," said Bryan Walton, chief executive of the Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association. "We're a beef nation. We have the land base, we have the know-how, we have the infrastructure."
Executives from McDonald's Canada's sustainability team visited CL Ranch near Calgary on May 13 to get a first-hand look at the realities of beef production.
"We were just able to talk about some of the situations we face on a day-to-day basis," CL Ranch chief executive Cherie Copithorne-Barnes said.
Copithorne-Barnes chairs the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. Being the first to land a deal with McDonald's could give the market a significant edge internationally, she said.
"Any time you can create a unique marketing position, it's good, and Canada is an export-driven market," she said. However, any deal must avoid duplicating sustainability efforts the industry had already made, she added.
Pine Lake cow-calf producer and CCA director Doug Sawyer said work defining what sustainable actually means and how it would be verified would likely focus on combining the checks and balances the industry already has in place.
Canada already has environmental and animal traceability systems in place to support sustainable production, Sawyer said. A new animal welfare code of practice has also been developed.
"We're just in the process of putting all of our pieces together that we already have and we'll try to identify any gaps that are there," he said.
That would come in the form of the Beef Information Exchange System - known as BIXS - which would provide a single source for all the information about a cattle beast needed to prove sustainable beef production.
"It can be difficult to exchange information from one side of the program to the other and so (BIXS) enables that," Jackson said.
McDonald's announced in January it would begin sourcing only verifiable sustainable beef in 2016, and the multinational company is now in talks with Canadian beef producers about them being the first to be certified to provide it.
McDonald's Canada already sources all of its beef from Canadian suppliers.
Alberta is to play a crucial role in the pilot supply project. The province is the heart of Canada's beef industry, home to about 40 per cent of the national cattle herd and about 80 per cent of the country's beef processing.
The Canadian Cattlemen's Association, Alberta Beef Producers and other industry players have been meeting McDonald's Canada officials to discuss how a sustainable supply chain can be put in place.
"McDonald's ... has made the commitment to begin purchases of verified sustainable beef, beginning by 2016 - and likely from Canada," McDonald's Canada spokesman John Gibson said.
"It appears Canada is the first" market to begin concrete work on sustainable supply, he said.
Fawn Jackson, manager of environment and sustainability for the CCA, said Canada's animal welfare standards made it a "natural fit" for a pilot project.
"We really are global leaders in this area."
Canada's new Verified Beef Production program upholds food safety standards during processing, she said, and checks on other areas including animal care and biodiversity were being added to it.
"We've got all the building blocks right here," said Bryan Walton, chief executive of the Alberta Cattle Feeders' Association. "We're a beef nation. We have the land base, we have the know-how, we have the infrastructure."
Executives from McDonald's Canada's sustainability team visited CL Ranch near Calgary on May 13 to get a first-hand look at the realities of beef production.
"We were just able to talk about some of the situations we face on a day-to-day basis," CL Ranch chief executive Cherie Copithorne-Barnes said.
Copithorne-Barnes chairs the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef. Being the first to land a deal with McDonald's could give the market a significant edge internationally, she said.
"Any time you can create a unique marketing position, it's good, and Canada is an export-driven market," she said. However, any deal must avoid duplicating sustainability efforts the industry had already made, she added.
Pine Lake cow-calf producer and CCA director Doug Sawyer said work defining what sustainable actually means and how it would be verified would likely focus on combining the checks and balances the industry already has in place.
Canada already has environmental and animal traceability systems in place to support sustainable production, Sawyer said. A new animal welfare code of practice has also been developed.
"We're just in the process of putting all of our pieces together that we already have and we'll try to identify any gaps that are there," he said.
That would come in the form of the Beef Information Exchange System - known as BIXS - which would provide a single source for all the information about a cattle beast needed to prove sustainable beef production.
"It can be difficult to exchange information from one side of the program to the other and so (BIXS) enables that," Jackson said.