Ep. 320: What’s the beef with beef?

Guest: Bob Lowe, Cattlemen’s Association

There is a growing portion of Canadians who have a beef with beef.

The belief appears to be that beef is bad for humans and cattle are bad for the environment and the atmosphere. In fact, according to the Canadian Centre for Food Integrity, one-third of us are negative about food production in Canada and another third are losing faith in the system.

Beef is front and centre. There are incorrect arguments that suggest we could eliminate cattle and substitute it with plant-based protein and in doing so, we’d all be better off and so would the environment. Bob Lowe, the President of the Cattlemen’s Association has heard it all and he says, “It simply isn’t true. In fact, if you take cattle off of the grasslands, then those grasslands and the thousands of species that call them home will die.”

He’s right – science has demonstrated that large grazing ruminants are essential to the health and well-being of grasslands. Cows graze, they turn over the soil and their saliva, urine and poop fertilize the land. When they chomp on the grasses that, in turn, stimulates growth.

What they are eating is sequestered carbon and they then convert those grasses into protein-rich nutrients. They also eat corn and barley and potatoes that are not fit for human consumption and they convert those carbon based organisms into protein and in the process reduce food waste.

And then there is their place in the flow of carbon. Cow burps are the by-product of carbon conversion that happens in their bodies, which is then emitted as methane which eventually returns to carbon and is once again sequestered in the vegetation the cows eat.

We invited Bob Lowe, the President of the Cattlemen’s Association to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the vital role cattle play in our well-being and the well-being of the environment.