Where’s the beef?

Demand for beef is increasing dramatically, particular in Asia. Beef is the food commodity with the largest ecological footprint, and increased production will have globally significant impacts on land and water resources, biodiversity, and climate. The scale of these impacts depends on where and how cattle production occurs.

The ‘Where’s the beef’ project aims to optimise the location of beef production to maximise productivity and minimise environmental impacts. This will be achieved by building systems models of local environmental impacts of beef production and coupling them with models of global beef trade to analyse production and policy scenarios.

Outcomes of this research include a framework for projecting regional and global ecological impacts of domestic cattle production policies, allowing informed decisions that consider and benefit environmental and socio-economic values.

This project is led by the University of Queensland.

Contact Adam Charette-Castonguay for more information.