Poultry has significant advantages over other meat proteins in terms of its sustainability and ‘carbon footprint’.  This is a result of efficient feed conversion ratios achieved through successful breeding of poultry over many decades.  Feed conversion ratios in the poultry industry are approximately 2.5 kilograms of feed to produce one kilogram of chicken meat for human consumption.   This compares favourably to feed conversion ratios for other proteins such as beef cattle which requires approximately 13 kilograms of feed.
 
In terms of other environmental factors, poultry is also the most ‘sustainable protein’ as:
• it is more economical from a water usage perspective;
• it is less problematic from a waste generation perspective; and
• it has less impact on soil degradation than lamb and beef, and on water pollution and species extinction than the farming of fish.

The timing of the likely benefit from poultry’s superior environmental positioning may be accelerated with the introduction of a carbon trading regime in Australia in 2010, or earlier if the Australian retailers follow the lead of Tesco and Walmart and begin requiring producers to identify the carbon footprint of products sold in their stores.

The significant advantages poultry has over other meat proteins from a sustainability and ‘carbon footprint’ perspective have the potential to underpin strong volume growth rates of 3 5% per annum over the medium to longer term.