Brazilian Carbon Neutral Cattle explained by Dr. Celso Moretti , CEO of Embrapa

22 Feb 2022 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:20

In this presentation, Dr. Celso Moretti, CEO of Embrapa, outlines Brazil’s integrated crop‑livestock‑forestry (ICLF) system designed to restore degraded pastures, noting that 17 million hectares have been recovered. He explains the concept of carbon‑neutral beef, where methane emissions from cattle are offset by carbon sequestration in the same plot’s agricultural (e.g., corn, soybean) and forestry (e.g., pine, eucalyptus) components. The approach is not an offset but a balance achieved through photosynthesis. Embrapa has partnered with a private Brazilian company to market carbon‑neutral beef domestically and internationally, and the initiative is expanding to carbon‑neutral milk, coffee, and other products, signaling rapid progress toward broader carbon‑neutral agriculture.

Chapters

and forestry systems. And we have a significant amount of degraded pasture. So 25 years ago, we started developing technology, which is the integrated crop livestock and forestry system, where the very same space, the very same place, same plot, you have an agricultural component— could be corn, could be wheat, could be soybean— and then you have the grass, and then you have your beef cattle, or you have your milk cattle, and then the very same area you have a forestry component. So we started this system to recover degraded pastures, and we already recovered 17 million hectares of degraded pastures in Brazil. And our researchers— and I am, as I mentioned in the beginning, I'm with Embrapa, which is an institution that has 8,000 employees and 2,200 researchers all over Brazil— They observed that It was possible to develop what we launched in the market in 2020, which is the carbon-neutral beef. So how do you produce a carbon-neutral beef? It's not about offsetting the production of carbon, but rather than that, it is about the amount of methane. And my colleague from CSIRO mentioned the Global Methane Initiative, which is part of also our challenge, and we are working on that. So the amount of methane that is produced by the cows is neutralized by either the agricultural component or the forestry component. As you know, during photosynthesis, plants, they sequester carbon from the atmosphere and store on the roots. And it happens on soybean, it happens on corn, and it happens on pines and eucalyptus. So we signed an agreement with a private company in Brazil. They are already marketing not only the Brazilian market, but they're also selling in other countries in the world. And We are moving also to carbon-neutral milk, carbon-neutral coffee, and not sugarcane sugar. So we are moving really fast in that direction.