The National Chicken Council (NCC) released its inaugural sustainability report, which provides a comprehensive overview of U.S. broilers and the industry’s collective progress in its environmental, flock welfare and social-impact journey. It also looks at the industry’s efforts as well as efforts to build a more sustainable food system.
“Guided and inspired by the call to action in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the report complements the important work being done by the US Roundtable for Sustainable Poultry & Eggs, which is developing a framework for collecting data to promote further innovation, drive improvements and support communication about the measured and verified sustainability of US chicken,” said Tom Super, senior vice president of communications for NCC.
He noted that six “essential industry topics” are addressed in NCC’s report, including air; land and water; broiler health and welfare; employee safety and wellbeing; food and consumer safety; community support; and food security.
The report features new broiler life cycle assessment (LCA) data commissioned by NCC. For example, the document reveals the broiler industry achieved significant improvements in key sustainability intensity metrics (environmental footprint per kilogram of bird) between 2010 and 2020:
- Land use: down 13%
- Greenhouse gas emissions (carbon footprint): down 18%
- Water consumption: down 13%
- Fossil resources use: down 22%
- Particulate forming emissions: down 22%
The report also features the U.S. chicken industry’s collective accomplishments, including:
- Decreasing broiler chicken on-farm mortality rates by 72% since 1925.
- Defining the essential elements of broiler chicken care with NCC’s Welfare Guidelines.
- Donating more than $133 million and 20 million meals to local communities at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
- Bolstering global food security with broiler exports totaling 7.4 billion pounds in 2020.
- Providing Americans and people across the world – throughout all life stages – with affordable, nutritious protein.
- Achieving an 86% decline in Occupational Safety and Health Administration recordable injuries and illnesses in the poultry processing sector over the past 25 years.
“We take pride in how our chicken gets from farm to table, but we know that sustainability is a journey of collective successes and growth areas. It’s on us as an industry to review our impact and areas of improvement so that we can direct our industry toward a more sustainable future,” Super said.
“We invite all consumers to learn how the US chicken industry is producing safe, nutritious and sustainable food. This new report is one resource to help shed light on the sustainable practices behind the food on their table.”
View the 2020 US Broiler Chicken Industry Sustainability Report here.
For a snapshot of key report data, download this infographic.
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