“In an agricultural system, if the soil is not moved, it keeps the carbon stable; This should have been included in the balance sheet, but it was never the case,” says Bastos, who participated in the “Estadão Summit Agro”.
In cattleThe “bull burp” is a major emitter of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The sector, however, faces this challenge, says Eduardo Bastos, CEO of the Instituto Equilíbrio and director of the Brazilian Agroindustry Association (Abag), who participated in the Estadão Summit Agro. In an interview, he says the focus should be on the full carbon cycle in pastures, not just part of the process. Read the main extracts:
What does it mean to look at the complete carbon cycle in livestock farming, often criticized for its emissions?
We need to debate the entire system, the carbon footprint, and not just emissions. Today, 75% of global emissions come from fossil sources. And, with fossils, you’re just reducing it. If you have a gasoline car and you replace it with a flex car, it emits less; If you opt for a model running on ethanol, it emits less. But in an agricultural system, you can build up organic matter in the soil. This captures and removes carbon. If this soil is not moved, it keeps the carbon stable. This should have been included in the balance sheet, but it never was.
You have also argued that climate measures must be adapted to tropical agriculture. For what?
Because the measurements, reports and verifications (MRV) used are based on the reality of the Northern Hemisphere. It works for them, but ours has to be different. A tropicalized MRV must take into account the reality of countries in the tropical belt. Here it rains more, the roots are deeper, life is deeper in the soil. In cold regions this does not happen because the deep layers are too cold. There is life and carbon stored in deep layers here, and this must be taken into account.
Is it a myth that the “bull burp” is a major climate villain?
It’s not a myth, it’s a challenge. Brazil emits around 2.4 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Agriculture accounts for about 600 million people, or about 25%. Of these 600 million, 500 comes from livestock and about 450 million is methane from the belching of livestock. So yes, it is a problem for humanity. But if we consider the amount captured by pastures, or systems such as integrated crop-livestock-forest (ILPF), it is possible to have a system that captures more than the animal emits.
So the objective is not to reduce emissions to zero, but to reduce the balance sheet to zero?
Exactly. To reach net zero, which is Brazil’s commitment for 2050, we don’t need to stop eating or moving. All this emits. But we can choose to have a biodiesel bus, which only emits 18% of total diesel. The goal is to combine technologies. This way we can continue to eat picanha on Sunday without feeling guilty about “ending the world”. If this steak comes from a well-managed system, it could be the result of production that removes more carbon than the animal releases. This should be the priority.
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