“No, the SEC won’t let us be…” is the tune the National Pork Producers Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association are singing.
The SEC’s latest ruling will require publicly traded companies to disclose their direct (scope 1), energy/electricity consumption (scope 2), and supply chain emissions (scope 3).
What’s at steak? According to the NPPC and NCBA, the greenhouse gas disclosure rule would place an unnecessary burden on producers who supply meat to publicly traded retailers, processors, and restaurants. Both note that it would be another expensive reporting mechanism that won’t improve environmental performance and is a violation of federal law (asking for confidential information).
Plus, this: The federal government has acknowledged the difficulty in calculating emissions on the farm or ranch level is virtually impossible.
Soundbite: “With cattle producers facing record inflation, rising input costs and labor shortages, another bureaucratic rule from Washington is a burden we cannot afford,” said NCBA President Don Schiefelbein. “Policymakers should be focused on lowering costs and solving the real problems facing farmers and ranchers, not creating more complex rules that require a team of lawyers to understand.”
In their filed comments to the NPPC and NCBA, the groups asked that the SEC reconsider its unnecessary climate disclosure requirements under Scope 3 of the proposed rules. More than 6,700 letters from individual cattle producers were also submitted to SEC commissioners and Congress. Numerous ag organizations filed comments in coalition with the NPPC and NCBA.