Morrisons has launched a new initiative to recognise, help and financially support those beef and lamb farmers who are working to help the environment
The ‘Sustainable Beef and Lamb Scheme’ will offer livestock premiums, green discounts, subsidised audits, and free environmental advice. It will be applicable to those farmers who are reducing carbon emissions; sourcing greener feeds; putting in place measures to become land and nature positive; and becoming animal and enterprise positive.
Morrisons said it hopes that the new scheme will be assessed by Assured Food Standards (Red Tractor) through its ‘Environment Module’, announced last year, to recognise each farm’s greener commitments.
Sophie Throup, Head of Agriculture at Morrisons, said: “UK agriculture currently accounts for 10% of all UK greenhouse gas emissions and we know our customers want to eat meat that’s produced in a sustainable way. True sustainable farming means looking at the whole farm and all of its environmental aspects – and putting nature right at the middle. We are investing in the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Scheme to maintain value for customers while helping farmers reach net zero and go beyond to become nature positive.”
Throup added: “We aim to significantly reduce carbon emissions in meat through improvements to what our animals eat and we’ll offset the remainder with initiatives such as sensitive tree planting and soil sequestration. But it’s also important to recognise that sheep and cattle largely graze on grass from their home farm, that their manures improve the soil health and biodiversity of the landscape, and that they are a nutrient rich food. All of which can also significantly improve sustainability.”
The scheme will supplement Morrisons’ existing programme to be directly supplied by net zero carbon British farms by 2030, five years ahead of the market. To date, over 130 beef and lamb farms have joined Morrisons net zero agriculture programme, with 500 farms expected to join by end-2022. Morrisons is supplied by 2,100 beef and lamb farmers.
