CEO Note: A Climate First for the Beef Industry
I’m excited to share with you an important step forward towards climate action in the meat industry: Marfrig, the world’s second-largest beef producer, announced yesterday that it will become the first major beef company to disclose its third-party supplier (Scope 3) methane emissions. It also announced a methane reduction target of 33% by 2035.
If Marfrig achieves its goal, it would mean an eventual annual emissions reduction of 196,920 tons of methane, equivalent to taking 1,166,744 gasoline powered cars off the road for a year.
The impact on the meat industry will be global: in addition to its operations in Brazil, Marfrig also owns National Beef, the United States’ fourth largest beef producer – and exports meat around the world. Methane represents a majority of the meat industry’s climate footprint, which in total is greater than the impact of all the cars, trucks, ships and planes in the world combined.
Marfrig made the announcement during the Belém climate summit at a Mighty Earth event; and stay tuned for more: Marfrig’s action comes in advance of our forthcoming methane report, where we’ve been asking meat companies to disclose their methane emissions, set reduction targets, and produce credible action plans. We’ve also been pushing retailers to act, helping drive supermarket chain Albert Heijn to take similar steps around transparency earlier this year.
“We have a target to reduce our methane emissions by 33% in Scope 3 by 2035, and to disclose methane,” said Marfrig Global Sustainability Director Paulo Pianez at the event. “Around 98% of our Scope 3 emissions come from methane generated by enteric fermentation, and this will be measured and demonstrated separately. This makes our disclosure more transparent. The idea is to show that it is possible to do this, and Marfrig is doing it. Now we must engage the whole sector and together we can really make a difference to the big, global challenge that we have.”
Gemma Hoskins, Global Climate Director at Mighty Earth, said: “We commend Marfrig’s transparency and accountability in setting this necessary target. But this is just the beginning. We’re calling on the rest of the field to follow suit, particularly super polluters such as JBS. While not aligned with the Global Methane Pledge of 30% by 2030, this is a crucial step in the right direction and much needed at this critical time in tackling global heating.”
Earlier this year, Marfrig took another positive step for the environment by banning purchases of any cattle connected to destruction of native ecosystems. Marfrig outlined a plan to reduce its methane emissions through practices such as feed additives and farming practices, which must be scaled across the sector urgently. Mighty Earth is calling for the meat industry to complement action for regenerative agriculture by boosting the percentage of plant-based protein it sells to make even more progress in protecting the climate and restoring nature.
One reason we’ve been able to deliver this change is because we’ve been able to grow our Brazil and protein transition teams. Having spent the week on the ground seeing this talented group and our allies, it’s no surprise! Thanks for all your support to make that happen. We will need it as we seek to build on the momentum to drive similar changes across the meat industry and beyond for truly gigaton scale impact.
All the best from Mighty Earth’s Brazil team and our friends!
—
© 2025. The text of this article is openly licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-ND 4.0); you are free to copy and redistribute or republish the article in its entirety with attribution and credit.
