Meat Institute Releases New Report on Agriculture Supply Chains

ARLINGTON, VA — The Meat Institute released a new report entitled, “Greenhouse Gas Accounting: Emissions Factors Brief,” offering a closer and comprehensive look at how companies across the animal agriculture supply chain are currently measuring and reporting upstream greenhouse gas emissions.

“This report is intended as a practical resource for companies throughout the meat and poultry supply chain to better understand how emissions data are developed, to ask clearer questions of data providers, and to build strategies that reflect their operational realities,” said Meat Institute President and CEO Julie Anna Potts. “The report also outlines current knowledge gaps and points to where practical guidance and coordination could help improve alignment throughout the supply chain.”

The brief reflects input from Meat Institute packer and processor members through surveys, interviews, and industry roundtables, along with review by independent experts. It focuses on the scope 3 emission factors used today for beef, pork, and poultry, and highlights areas where approaches differ across data sources, system boundaries, and calculation methods.

For the broader supply chain, the report shows that:

• Reported emission factor values span a wide range across proteins, often due to differences in functional units, geographic assumptions, and whether impacts such as land use change are included or reported separately.
• Many companies reference the same core U.S. studies, but apply them in different ways based on their own sourcing regions, customers, and reporting needs.
• Recent publicly available data for poultry remains limited, with most of the reported information coming from third-party tools rather than published literature.
• Method choices—such as how methane is modeled or which Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment values are applied—can meaningfully affect reported results, even when companies are working from similar underlying data.

This report is a product of the Meat Institute’s Sustainability Committee and is a key step in building a collaborative resource hub for animal agriculture supply chains to improve environmental impact programs through measurement, reporting and on-the-ground projects.

About the Meat Institute

The Meat Institute represents the full community of people and companies who make the majority of meat American families rely on every day. The Meat Institute’s hands-on regulatory and technical expertise, proactive advocacy, unique convening power, collaboration within and beyond animal agriculture, and sector-leading continuous improvement initiatives drive relationships and resources that ensure meat continues to be a vital, trusted pillar of healthy diets and thriving communities for generations to come. To learn more, visit: MeatInstitute.org.