He said: “This is a three-part partnership with the private sector, through the IMS, governments, through the FAO, and the third part would be non-government organisations and consumer groups. This is a path-breaking new approach, which will start in July and run for three years.
“The main purpose is to work on a standardisation over the need for a globally agreed method of assessment of environmental impact of livestock production systems around the world.
“We felt this was an important enough occasion for us to be able to take part in this opportunity and would like to encourage our members [to get involved] – those who have experience and reasearch in this area. This is about taking the best of what is already out there. The aim of the partnership is about creating a forum where we can have a reasonable and fair debate.”
Announcing the agreement at the World Meat Congress in Paris, Hsin Huang, secretary general of the International Meat Secretariat (IMS), said his organisation would be working with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) to develop equivalent global standards when it came to assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the livestock sector.
