Environmental sustainability, Sardinian sheep meat and milk at the top in Italy and in Europe

The first carbon reduction research project in Italy is Sardinian.

It is called Life green sheep, it aims to reduce the carbon content of sheep's meat and milk by 12% in 10 years and was presented by the Consortium for the protection of the Sardinian IGP lamb (Contas) and by the Agris Sardegna agency with the coordination of the Department of Agriculture of the University of Sassari.

The project won the IG – Italy Next DOP national research prize promoted by the Qualivita Foundation .

A jury of 15 experts evaluated over 90 research projects on Italian PDO PGIs and awarded what the Sardinian team is realizing. Why? «For the scientific value of the project, for having been able to develop it within various Italian PDO supply chains, for the transfer that the partners have been able to give to the production world and for the popular level of the initiative. The excellent level of scientific dissemination supports the effective application of a project that responds to the keyword sustainability with the aim of reducing the carbon footprint of sheep's meat and milk by 12% within 10 years ».

The award, in its first edition, was presented in recent days in Rome in the presence of the Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Francesco Lollobrigida.

«A prestigious acknowledgment that honors us - says the president of Contas Battista Cualbu -, confirms once again the sustainability of our farms and in this specific case also the qualified research and innovation network that is also working through important projects towards further improvement of our farms in an environmental key, representing an example not only nationally but also internationally".

The project, which involves 5 countries (France, Ireland, Italy, Romania and Spain) which produce 47% of the EU's meat and 63% of sheep's milk, is presented by Agris researcher Gabriella Serra : «The sheep bred for milk and meat production produce greenhouse gases through their physiological digestive processes. These emissions represent 6.5% of greenhouse gas emissions from the livestock sector. However, studies show that farmers and technicians have little access to information on the best strategies to adopt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, sheep farming can also contribute to regulating the climate through the storage of carbon in pastures. This gives sheep farming an important role in mitigating climate change and maintaining farm profitability . Finally, the studies conducted so far in Europe show that, as there is a significant variability in farming techniques, there is ample room for improvement and mitigation".

Hence the challenge of the Life green sheep project «to be able to reduce the carbon footprint of the production of milk and sheepmeat by 12% within 10 years while guaranteeing corporate sustainability».

Contas came close to en plein, also reaching the final with Versoa, a project coordinated by Professor Giuseppe Pulina which certifies the first zero-emission meat . A world novelty, the certification of the first Igp lambs of Sardinia NeutryFoood® according to international parameters (certification of total sustainability with the objective of zero emissions and global animal welfare) but « it will continue – said Professor Pulina – with the certification of neutrality of pork and, subsequently, sheep and goat milk ».

(Unioneonline/L)