Fun facts about Albertan and Canadian Beef that will moo you:
- Canada is one of the largest exporters of red meat and livestock in the world? We export around 45 percent of Canadian beef and cattle production each year!
- Canada’s pasture and prairie store up to 1.5 billion tons of carbon, equal to the emissions from 3.62 million cars annually. Cultivation of grasslands can lead to a 30-35% loss of soil organic carbon. That’s a beefy sustainability fact!
- Apparently, others heart Canadian beef too! Canada produces ~1.3 million tonnes of beef annually. In 2018, Canada’s beef industry exported $2.75 billion (398,580 tonnes) of beef, representing 38 percent of domestic slaughter. This is a new record high in beef export value. Canada exported 597,500 tonnes of beef and cattle valued at $3.7 billion in 2018, representing 44 percent of beef production (including live slaughter cattle exported).
- Healthy soil is the secret to life. Cattle sustain soil with the nutrients from manure for healthy grass. Healthy grass = ground cover protection from blazing sun and pounding rains. Cattle are the ultimate manure spreaders. No bull.
- Alberta consumes 13% of their beef production in-province (from process), 56% is shared with neighboring provinces, 20% is exported to the United States and 9% is exported to other international markets. Sharing is caring!
- Canadian beef industry ships to 56 countries but happily shares 74% of all beef exports with our border friends in the US of A.
- The most popular cut of beef, is not a cut at all! Ground beef is the most commonly purchased beef, providing the most opportunities to be enjoyed so many different ways! Burgers, meatloaf, meat pies, stir fry and it goes on! Weber Grill Watch Survey (2015): Burgers still reign as the most often grilled food item by 94% of Canadian grillers.
- Birds live in the grasslands that cattle sustain. Cattle maintain 68% of the wildlife habitat capacity that comes from our agricultural land. Many bird species would lose their habitat to overgrowth without cattle grazing. Keep calm. Graze on.
- The beef industry contributes $41B annually to Canada’s GDP and ~228,000 jobs. What a great reason to support local beef farmers and ranchers!
- Eating meat allows you to more easily absorb iron from plant sources — by a whopping 150%! I’ll strong arm for beef!
Beefy information is gratefully sourced from canadabeef.ca and albertabeef.org
