“The study underscores just how much improvement farmers have made over the past half century,” said Garth Boyd, Ph.D. The environmental researcher and former university professor led a team of university and industry scientists in conducting the Checkoff-funded study. “The pork industry has been very successful in significantly reducing its environmental impact and its use of natural resources by nearly 50% across the board per pound of pork produced, which is quite an accomplishment.”

Several on-farm practices have helped improve U.S. pork’s overall environmental sustainability. Boyd said these were primarily related to the continuous improvements made over the years in how farmers care for their animals through better nutrition, health and overall management, as well as through improvements in crop production. One example in the report shows that feed efficiency of pigs has improved 33%, which means that animals consume less feed for every pound of meat produced. This is a major factor that reduces both the amount of land required for growing grain and the amount of manure produced by pigs.

While the recent data on the sustainability metrics offer a positive reflection on past performance, Nelson said today’s pork producers are not standing still in terms of environmental progress. “To us, Earth Day is much more than a single day or week of heightened environmental awareness—it’s an engrained part of how we care for our animals, the environment and our communities as we provide healthy pork products for our consumers.”

The National Pork Board has defined four pillars of environmental sustainability—carbon footprint, water footprint, air footprint and land footprint. According to Nelson, the Pork Checkoff is making inroads into all of these areas with farmer-directed research and the creation of on-farm tools. Most notably, producers can now use the Live Swine Carbon Footprint Calculator to calculate the impact and improvements on their own farms. As each of the four pillars of environmental sustainability are completed they will be integrated with the others to provide a tool that pork producers can use to further their ongoing efforts to protect the natural environment in all of their farming activities.

The National Pork Board has responsibility for Checkoff-funded research, promotion and consumer information projects and for communicating with pork producers and the public. Through a legislative national Pork Checkoff, pork producers invest $0.40 for each $100 value of hogs sold. Importers of pork products contribute a like amount, based on a formula. The Pork Checkoff funds national and state programs in advertising, consumer information, retail and foodservice marketing, export market promotion, production improvement, technology, swine health, pork safety and environmental management.

Photo:A mixture of chopped portobello mushrooms, cheddar and maple syrup tops these bone-in chops. Courtesy of the National Pork Board