Sustainable beef is a socially responsible, environmentally sound, and economically viable product that prioritizes planet, people, animals, and progress. Beef sustainability requires awareness of the complex relationships among these three pillars.

In practice, sustainability to beef farmers and ranchers is about taking care of the animals, land, and water, while being a good neighbor and community member, and maintaining profitability. The beef industry has made improvements across these three areas of sustainability, in all sectors of the industry, from the cow-calf level to the packer phase.

The removal of beef cattle from grazing lands would effectively eliminate the beef industry, which would have a ripple effect on other industries that serve as input suppliers across the beef supply chain, while also eliminating critical social, economic, and environmental services provided by grazing cattle.

We describe the science on the economic, social, and environmental benefits of grazing cattle on grazing lands, and discuss the sustainability impacts of eliminating the beef industry in the U.S.