FARMING, SUSTAINABILITY AND ORIGIN OF HIDES
Picture by Caio Sarmento Belleza from Estancia Taruma, Bage, RS, Brazil
SUSTAINABILITY AND CARBON FOOT PRINT
Origin of the hides and preservation: Our hides are from Brazilian origin, they are a by-product of the meat industry, corresponding to about 4% of this industry's revenue.
In Brazil, farmers are required to preserve the natural vegetation cover in 20 to 80% of their property, depending on the biome where they are located. This results in an area of 538 million acres of privately owned land preserved in Brazil.
If this was a country it would have been the 12th largest in the world, and larger than the entire area of Mexico.
The country has 66.37% of its area preserved, while at the same time, producing and exporting enough food to feed 1.2 billion people worldwide.
Our skins are tracked from the tannery all the way back to the farm area where they came from, by individually stamping each hide with perforated codes, to ensure cattle is not from illegal farming areas.
Sustainability: Most of our hides come from grass-fed cattle who roam organic pastures, especially in south (Pampa) and central Brazil (Cerrado)
Pampa is a biome that covers south Brasil, Uruguay and large parts of Argentina, where farmers are required to preserve at least 20% of the vegetation intact (in addition to permanent preservation areas like riverbanks).
In the vast areas of central Brasil the original biome "Cerrado" is composed of savannas and grasslands amid humid and dry forests, where farmers are required to keep at least 35% of the land untouched.
Brazilian farming provides environmental preservation, animal welfare, a neutral carbon footprint and vast food supply for the world.
Source: www.smilingtreefarm.com
Carbon footprint of hides: Matter cannot be created or destroyed. This is a primary school level biology concept beyond dispute.
The Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) released by the livestock (which is being pointed out as the culprits in global warming) were not created the cattle organism.
Livestock in free range systems feed on grass, and 97.5 % of the carbon in every plant comes from the air through the process of photosynthesis, not from the soil.
Even the carbon in the roots of grass plants, and in the exudate that the plant gives to the soil microbes, in a swap for nutrients, comes from the air.
The carbon molecules are captured by the plant, and then converted into energy, eaten by the cattle, and their meat converted in energy by humans .
Livestock cannot add a single atom of carbon to the atmosphere that wasn’t already there.
They are a part of the carbon cycle, with food being created in the process and pastures help in the preservation of nature.
Learn more about the allocation of land in brazil and laws governing use of agriculture land by clicking at the image below
