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Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef
- Thread starter Soapweed
- Start date
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This is an interesting discussion. I am not sure the GRSB certification is any more or less than any other certification at this point, although I can certainly see it being driven ahead by various industry players and maybe even becoming the "standard".
For the record we are certified in Canada through VBP+ and originally by "Where Food Comes From" through the CRSB pilot project. It was actually a worthwhile process for us and pointed out some areas that we could improve. A good example was that we did not have a farm safety plan. The point of the certification is to identify and work on continual improvement, which I know everyone is doing anyway.
I can't speak for anyone else but the certification has created some marketing opportunities for us, which is what drove us towards it anyway. We are already doing way more than the bare minimum and documenting it. This fall we sold our steers direct, for a premium to a VBP lot and although it was not a huge sum we received a cheque for calves we had sold in 2017 that were harvested in the summer of 2018. Those calves were sold privately at a premium last fall, so the cheque was a nice bonus surprise.
I am in favour of folks deciding what they want to do and pursue on their own and not being forced to comply, but over the last couple of years especially I have become pretty concerned about the social movement against beef that does not seem to be slowing down, listening or using logic in any way. This to me is a huge danger to the industry and I am not sure how to combat it, other than documenting what we are doing right and continuing to put it out there in the public eye. FWIW.
For the record we are certified in Canada through VBP+ and originally by "Where Food Comes From" through the CRSB pilot project. It was actually a worthwhile process for us and pointed out some areas that we could improve. A good example was that we did not have a farm safety plan. The point of the certification is to identify and work on continual improvement, which I know everyone is doing anyway.
I can't speak for anyone else but the certification has created some marketing opportunities for us, which is what drove us towards it anyway. We are already doing way more than the bare minimum and documenting it. This fall we sold our steers direct, for a premium to a VBP lot and although it was not a huge sum we received a cheque for calves we had sold in 2017 that were harvested in the summer of 2018. Those calves were sold privately at a premium last fall, so the cheque was a nice bonus surprise.
I am in favour of folks deciding what they want to do and pursue on their own and not being forced to comply, but over the last couple of years especially I have become pretty concerned about the social movement against beef that does not seem to be slowing down, listening or using logic in any way. This to me is a huge danger to the industry and I am not sure how to combat it, other than documenting what we are doing right and continuing to put it out there in the public eye. FWIW.
I found a video of the speaker that Angus 62 recommended. Interesting, and certainly some provocative sound bites he plays. Some may be offended that he's speaking at an R-CALF convention. He also spoke at Farm Bureau. Just listen to his message. I have always had some reservations about RFID tags that had purpose beyond the ranch. I now have some validation as to why.
Thank you Angus 62.
https://youtu.be/DIVQGPXB4sk
Thank you Angus 62.
https://youtu.be/DIVQGPXB4sk
Soapweed
Well-known member
Tracy Hunt gave this presentation in Valentine last Thursday evening, February 7th, 2019. It is really eye-opening information of which we all need to be extremely aware. We can't let our guard down.