Cattle Australia director David Foote outlined, in a rather succinct manner, his thoughts on what producers need to stop doing when he delivered a talk at the 2024 Wagyu Edge conference in Cairns.
Stop asking Meat & Livestock Australia to speak for you; stop thinking the $5 transaction levy gives you membership to something and stop letting public servants run your commercial negotiations, he said.
For 45 years, Mr Foote has held senior and executive roles in the beef business across all mainland states - the most recent with the Lee family's Australian Country Choice. He's a former Queensland Country Life Beef Achiever of the Year and also runs a small cattle property with his wife, Marian, near Mt Kilcoy in Queensland.
One of the key issues CA has been lobbying on is that the industry target set by MLA for beef to be carbon neutral by 2030 be replaced with a climate neutral goal.
Mr Foote is known for holding no punches when it comes to what MLA has done wrong so it was natural that producers wanted to hear from him on the topic.
He described MLA as "possibly the most kicked-to-death body in our industry."
Half the time that was justified, he said, but the other half MLA was "just misunderstood".
"It is not the representative body for our industry; it is the marketing and research body," Mr Foote said.
"It is not allowed to advocate or lobby on behalf of the industry. It receives statutory funding and no government is going to loan you the money in order for you to give them an uppercut.
"We can't rely on MLA to do this work for us. We can't ask MLA to do it.
"Therefore we must have strong representation through our peak industry councils."
How did it come to be that MLA was looked on to be the producer's voice?
"Back in 2011, MLA had to fill a void when we faced the single greatest threat to this industry we've ever known," Mr Foote said in reference to the then Labor Government's suspension of the live cattle trade to Indonesia.
"There was no coherent mob representing us, no force.
"CA, even in its current form which will only get better and stronger, now has the street cred to be the force.
"It's informed, respected and we have a team that is actively out there.
"It's not MLA's fault it is asked to play this role it can not, but it will be CA's fault if we let MLA be the sole voice for the big issues our industry wishes to tackle."
Mr Foote outlined some of the key priorities CA was working on, which included securing funding to support effective national biosecurity to retain market access, delivering a national definition for deforestation for grass-fed cattle production, urgent action on alternative protein labels, protecting live export pathways from possible disease transmission or politically-driven closure and advocating for increased retail price transparency.
One the key issues that clearly gets on his goat is the review of the Australian Dietary Guidelines, where moves are underway to factor in sustainability to national food intake recommendations.
"If we don't speak for ourselves someone else will do it for us and there is a classic case at the moment of this playing out with the ADGs," he said.
"Most people eat more beef in an entree than our guidelines say you can have in a week.
"Now they are reaching down further into sustainability issues. Those scientists who are supposed to be developing our nutritional advice are becoming environmental activists and suggesting we should eat less meat because of the environment.
"We will be steamrolled if we don't put a peg in the sand and say enough is enough, stick to your role.
"If we don't thump the table, others will thump us."
Mr Foote also warned on what he sees as the dangers of bureaucrats running trade negotiations.
He praised Trade Minister Don Farrell's decision to walk away from the European Union Free Trade Agreement last year but said that went against was the minister was being advised to do by trade department staff.
"I do not know any business that would choose a public servant to be its commercial negotiator," Mr Foote said.
"An FTA does not impact their livelihoods in any way.
"Whilst Australia has granted 200,000 tonne of pork access to France we are fighting for 3000t of our beef into the EU and we were being encouraged to sign up to that by bureaucrats.
"They are tick and flick - KPI met.
"CA feels a cold and hungry Europe in about 10 to 15 years will have a very different attitude to trade relations with us."
Shan Goodwin
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Shan Goodwin steers ACM’s national coverage of the beef industry. Shan has worked as a journalist for 30 years, the majority of that with agricultural publications. She spent many years as The Land’s North Coast reporter and has visited beef properties and stations throughout the country and overseas. She treats all breeds equally. Contact 0427686187. E: s.goodwin@austcommunitymedia.com.au
