NEW YORK – Silver Fern Farms, New Zealand’s leading red meat producer and exporter, celebrated the launch of its USDA-approved Net Carbon Zero by Nature 100% Grass-Fed Angus Beef at a New York City event attended by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
“It’s great to see New Zealand exporters like Silver Fern Farms bringing their own initiatives to sustainability and our regenerative future,” said New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the event. “It’s a wonderful example of how Aotearoa New Zealand prides itself on preserving its land and sea for future generations.”
“Silver Fern Farms and their Net Carbon Zero Beef represents both New Zealand values but also our aspirations when it comes to climate change. Rather than this product being the exception, it will increasingly be the rule. It’s great to see Silver Fern Farms leading the charge in that regard.”
Held at the Kimpton Hotel Eventi rooftop in Chelsea, the Prime Minister was joined by the visiting New Zealand trade mission, New York and U.S. national media, and the Silver Fern Farms board and leadership team. The event was to celebrate the successful introduction of Net Carbon Zero by Nature Angus Beef to the U.S. The 100% grass-fed product is already being sold in supermarkets in the New York Tri-state area, the Midwest, and California.
“Taking care of our emissions is our own responsibility, no-one else’s,” said Silver Fern Farms CEO Simon Limmer. “We are not outsourcing our emissions, rather we are recognizing and incentivizing our farmers for their efforts to create farm environments that are better able to capture carbon, increase biodiversity, and support nature positive food production.”
“As an exporter and marketer, we know that our pastoral farming system already has many of the attributes consumers are looking for. We are continuing to invest, innovate and support those working the land to ensure our farms continue to be seen as the best in the world.”
With exports to 60 countries and supplying the U.S. market with its grass-fed product for four decades, Silver Fern Farms’ Net Carbon Zero by Nature Angus Beef products are a further step along its journey towards becoming a nature-positive food brand.
Simon Limmer says that U.S. consumers and its own New Zealand cooperative farmers are more conscious than ever of the environment in which their food is raised. “In New Zealand we have a deep connection to nature and caring for the environment is part of who we are. With our Net Carbon Zero range we want to show we can produce great tasting, nutrient dense red meat in way that is better for the planet. This is truly beef made better”BACKGROUND
Silver Fern Farms Net Carbon Zero by Nature Angus Beef has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and certified by New Zealand’s premier agricultural science institution Ag Research and New Zealand’s most trusted environmental verification body, Toitū Envirocare.
The key to Silver Fern’s zero carbon methodology is “insetting” – determining how much of the carbon produced is being absorbed by the local environment. New Zealand has a uniquely biodiverse farming environment, with on-farm vegetation including regenerating native bush, woodlot forests, shelter belts, summer shade and winter animal shelter, and erosion and riparian planting.
Recognizing that 96% of beef emissions occur on farm, in 2018 Silver Fern Farms commenced a program to map and measure the sequestration potential from the many types of vegetation present on New Zealand farms. Satellite technology, aided by increasingly sophisticated AI software, has been used to measure on-farm vegetation to within 0.5 of a meter, enabling a calculation of each individual farm’s ability to sequester carbon.
A committed red meat exporter to the U.S. for 40 years, Silver Fern Farms has been providing its New Zealand-farmed products to supermarkets, restaurants, and food service distributors with several product ranges including premium ground beef, beef steaks, lamb, and venison retail packs.
