Tönnies Group launches first nationwide “meat climate platform”
In the presence of around 1.000 agricultural partners as well as high-ranking guests from federal, state and local politics, the Tönnies group of companies put the first “meat climate platform” into operation on Wednesday. With this platform, the food producer from Rheda-Wiedenbrück wants to strengthen regional production on family farms and at the same time make the climate performance of local producers transparent. The presentation of the new tool was embedded in the “Agriculture Future Forum” in the A2 Forum in Rheda-Wiedenbrück.
One week before the start of the 28th UN World Climate Conference in Dubai, the launch of the Tönnies Group's climate platform is intended to make the comprehensible climate protection achievements of domestic agriculture transparent. While an interim assessment of the implementation of the Paris Climate Protection Agreement of 2015 is being taken under the auspices of the United Nations in the Persian Gulf, local farmers can look back proudly on their climate protection achievements. “Since 1990, German agriculture has saved more than 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions while increasing production volumes,” emphasized Dr. Wilhelm Jaeger, head of the agriculture department at Tönnies, at the “Agriculture Future Forum”. But that should only be a temporary goal. “Agriculture and the meat industry want to work together to further advance climate protection,” he emphasized. German food production is closely linked to sustainable livestock farming, said Jaeger. “Knowledge of the climate impact along the entire value chain and identifying the potential for improvement are fundamental to this.”
This is exactly where the climate platform comes in: Farmers can now register on the online platform (www.klimaplattform-fleisch.de) and enter your operating data such as size, feed components, power consumption, etc. “After entering the data, all of our producers who use the platform receive an individually prepared overview of the results and can compare the values with other companies,” adds Franziska Elmerhaus, project manager in the agriculture department at Tönnies. “Based on the results and comparison options, adjustments can be identified to further reduce the company’s CO2 footprint.” The ball has now started rolling. With the climate platform, Tönnies is aiming for a uniform industry solution and wants to take all market participants with it.
“Adequate prices for the producer and affordable prices for the consumer”
“We work with around 11.000 agricultural businesses. The goal of us, retailers and politicians must be to strengthen the domestic supply of good and safe food,” explained Clemens Tönnies, managing partner of the Tönnies Group, at the Future Forum. “It is anything but sustainable to instead cover demand through imports from countries that are significantly below our standards, especially when it comes to animal husbandry,” emphasized Maximilian Tönnies. "We compensate for the efficiency disadvantage that German farmers often have compared to global competition through our efficiency in processing and the complete utilization of all parts of an animal. In this way, we achieve an appropriate price for the producer and at the same time affordable prices for consumers - with regionally produced products products," he said. “In the end, we need reasonable prices for producers and at the same time affordable prices for consumers,” explained Clemens Tönnies.
The future forum of the Rheda-Wiedenbrücken family business was all about strengthening local agriculture. “Day after day, farmers and the many upstream and downstream companies in the agricultural and food industry in our country ensure that supermarket shelves are filled with fresh, high-quality food from our regions,” said NRW Agriculture Minister Silke Addressed the participants of the Future Forum. “We will continue to need this strong, regionally anchored agriculture and food industry for North Rhine-Westphalia in the future. Our goal is therefore to strengthen regional value chains,” she promised the farmers. But this also requires a clear commitment from the federal government to sustainable livestock farming.
“Meat is much better than its reputation and remains important for human nutrition”
Dr. Hinrich Snell, head of the department for converting livestock farming in the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), described the conversion of livestock farming in his presentation as “one of the BMEL’s central projects in this legislative period”. This requires different, independent building blocks. “In addition to animal husbandry labeling, this concerns changes in building law, the removal of hurdles in pollution control and the creation of a federal program for stable conversion in order to promote the investment costs for more animal-friendly stables and the ongoing costs for better husbandry,” said the top Berlin official.
One of the core problems of German agriculture and meat production was brought by Prof. Dr. Peer Ederer got to the point: “Not everything that is often said is true,” said the director of GOALSciences. The Observatory for Livestock Husbandry deals scientifically with the entire range of topics. His conclusion: “Meat is much better than its reputation and remains important for human nutrition,” emphasized Prof. Dr. Ederer. He appealed to farmers to go out themselves and seek dialogue. “To do this, it is important to sharpen your own arguments and to push forward the necessary innovations seriously and credibly.” The newly created climate platform is an important instrument for this.
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