Sustainability

How sustainable, or unsustainable, is meat, really? This is a question that more and more of us are asking. And rightly so, in our opinion. It is a question of the environment and our climate, but also animal welfare, labour conditions and financial resilience. As a food business, we have a great responsibility in much the same way as energy and construction companies, airlines and car manufacturers. But those of us with the greatest responsibility also have the greatest opportunities. Let us share with you how we view our role as sustainability influencers.

A good place to begin is with perspective. We see sustainability as a global matter. The choices we make will always affect others. That goes for individuals, companies and nation states. In the same way, an improvement or an impairment within a certain area can have the same – or perhaps the polar opposite – effect within another. For those of us who work within meat, this means actively seeking to ensure that any positive efforts we make for the climate do not have a negative side effect on, say, animal welfare.

Our starting point is to view the entire planet as one big ecosystem. Everything is interconnected. The weather, the earth, plants, animals, people. It would be much simpler to care only about specific parts, but the truth is that a holistic view is the only reasonable perspective. Even for a small meat company from Sweden.

Norvida is by no means a giant company. But we have both a huge responsibility and huge opportunities – not least because our business is within meat. Perhaps it is also an advantage of ours that we come from Sweden – a country where sustainability is high on the agenda. Our South American colleague, Netto Schimansky believes this is an engagement which actually filters through and has a direct impact on meat producers in the region.