Grocery giant Coles has launched a new brand of carbon-neutral beef, but the farmers who supply the product are not necessarily carbon neutral.
Head of beef procurement at Coles, Steve Rennie, said the product had been two years in the making.
"From farm to shelf is what the carbon assessment has been," he said.
"What carbon we can't get out of in the supply chain once you measure it, you purchase carbon credits to offset that and it gives you a carbon neutral product which is certified by Climate Active."
He said the range would have seven different cuts of meat and start off being sold in Victoria before being rolled out nationally.
"We're processing on 200 animals a week just for Victoria," Mr Rennie said.
"The expectations are high and so we're expecting that demand to grow as we take it nationally over the next 12 months."
Mr Rennie said it was a whole supply chain approach from farm to shelf.
"It's definitely not just the farmers' responsibility but farmers probably have the biggest part and can do the best when it comes to lowering the footprint."
Low-emission beef farms
The new brand will be supplied by producers who have been assessed as low carbon emitters.
Delatite Station cattle farmer Mark Ritchie has been supplying Coles for 10 years and said it's important to note the beef that leaves the farm is not carbon neutral.
"We've done two years' analysis of what our emissions are and what out carbon footprint is.
"We're in early days, the challenge for us is to lower out footprint further."
Mr Richie said he was satisfied with Coles purchasing carbon credits to offset emissions while he continued to lower his footprint.
"It's complex, as a producer I'm reluctant to do it myself, I think I'm better off doing what I do best and that's producing cattle."
Andrew and Jane Marriott, beef producers from north-east Victoria, said they would also be supplying the brand.
Mr Marriott said it was the way the industry was going.
"We're not carbon neutral but this whole process of finding out what our carbon footprint is illustrated to us that a lot of things that are leading to a lower footprint are good farming practices," Mr Marriott said.
"You've got to have a good weaning rate, good conception rate, good pastures, grow trees and look after the environment.
"It's an innovative way to do this with Coles because they want you to run your system as productive as possible.
"Our footprint was just over 10 kilograms of carbon per kilo of animal and we're working towards lowering that more, with things like feed additives."
Mr Marriott said his three children were all keen to be involved in the farm one day and this style of farming is what would be expected for the industry to become carbon neutral by 2030.
'Biggest con I've ever heard'
Gary Baker is a biodynamic farmer from Nurmurkah who said he was shocked to hear the farms supplying the beef were not carbon neutral.
"It's the biggest con I've ever heard," Mr Baker said.
"You can mine coal and then buy credits somewhere else and say that coal is clean because we offset.
"I think we need genuine information from the farm, if it's carbon neutral beef then the beef that leaves the farm needs to be carbon neutral."
Mr Baker has invested in lowering the carbon footprint on his farm over the past 21 years and believes he is only halfway to being carbon neutral.
"We do things like green manuring, we put all our carbon back into the soil, we have a lot of solar panels on our place.
"We think we're a long way off the track to being carbon neutral.
Mr Baker believed some farmers could meet Meat and Livestock Australia's target of carbon neutral by 2030 but said it would require big changes.
"If people want to invest the money like we have, then it's possible."
