Beef's 'window of opportunity' : Rabobank's Justin Sherrard at GRSB

In wrapping up the 2022 Global Roundtable for Sustainable Beef conference in Denver, Colorado, the organisation's secretary treasurer Justin Sherrard, Rabobank, made mention of several 'wake up calls' and 'tricks the beef industry is missing'.

One he spoke passionately about was the need to set up alignments between all, from producer to processor to retail, that spread the benefits and risks more evenly.

"We have to find a way to get clearer signals going all the way along the chain," Mr Sherrard said.

"We must operate on a foundation of trust and the belief that working together step-by-step along the chain is a more powerful approach than allowing our critics to chip away at each one of us bit by bit."

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Mr Sherrard made the argument that global beef had created for itself a very important space right now in the sustainability conversation and had in front of it a window of opportunity that would not last forever.

"Yes we are under pressure to do better. There are plenty of critics out there who want to see the end of our supply chains," he said.

"But just a couple of years ago, it looked like the deck was stacked against us in the run up to the United Nations food systems summit. It looked like the vegans had taken over and were going to direct the conversation on a sustainable food system."

But collectively the industry had fought hard and captured a space where it could now 'stop and breath' and set a plan for moving forward.

Mr Sherrard said that window had to be used wisely.

"The critical thing we have to do at the moment is capture data, agree on metrics and start reporting," he said.

"What we need behind a good narrative is good data.

"We have to be willing to share our data in ways that provides the ammunition, the fuel, the foundation to the story we are going to tell into the future."

It was easy to forget how far the beef industry had come in terms of engaging with the communities and societies in which it operates, Mr Sherrard told the 250 delegates from the world's largest beef producing and exporting nations.

"When (Australian researcher) Bradd Witt kicked off this conference by referring to the 'Get off Our Backs' slogan farmers went to the market with 15 years ago, I thought he was joking," Mr Sherrard said.

"I did not think even 15 years ago our industry was using that sort of language to talk to outside stakeholders about what we do in the food system."

The challenge of rethinking what communicating means was put out early in the conference by Dr Witt and his colleague Taylah Faulkner, both from the University of Queensland, when they outlined research which suggested that 'telling our story' might not be enough.

Mr Sherrard said what he took away from their presentations was there were limits to how effective the beef industry could be at 'telling its story' because communication was a two way process.

"We have to get ready to listen," he said.

"We shouldn't be afraid of criticism. I doubt there is anything out there we haven't heard before. And it is only through really engaging and inviting people to criticise us directly that we can hope to understand where they are coming from and in turn we can ask ourselves what else we need to add to our story.

"Because in truth, our story at the moment is what we think others want to hear."