Getting Australia's point of view heard and understood in global conversations is more important than ever, according to Australia's special representative for Australian agriculture Su McCluskey.
After a year in the job created to boost Australia's presence and influence in the agricultural institutions that shape producers' access to export markets, Ms McCluskey told the LIVEXchange conference in Darwin that she hadn't realised how challenging it would be to raise awareness and understanding of practices here.
On her first trip overseas in her new role, to Europe, she said she 'got hammered' on her country's animal welfare practices.
"We know we're good at it but it's not the way we're seen," she said.
She cited mulesing as an example, where she had to explain it was the wool sheep, not meat sheep that were mulesed, along with the reasons why.
"People were really appreciative of this; it's where the value of my role first came out," she said. "You don't get this when governments are dealing with governments."
There was also an impression that Australia had very high chemical and fertiliser use, which Ms McClusky quickly debunked, explaining that producers weren't subsidised and so didn't use more than they had to.
"It's important that we articulate what we do, and how," she said.
Her words come at a time when COVID impacts, conflict and climate changes, and now the cost of living, are affecting food prices and countries are becoming more protectionist, putting more pressure on food security.
It means Australia is more concerned than ever about the proliferation of non-tariff barriers locking growers out of markets.
A visit to the US showed Ms McCluskey the extent and impact of subsidisation there, where suggestions of diverting money to better on-farm outcomes were met with an impassive response.
In contrast, in South America, which is mostly not subsidised, she said there were many opportunities to work together, especially in Argentina and Uruguay, in the Merino sheep industry.
The message there was that the Cairns Group Farm Leaders, incorporating Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Fiji, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Thailand and Uruguay, should speak with one voice on subsidies and prescriptive approaches.
On the domestic scene, Ms McCluskey said the message loud and clear was sustainability, which food security was a big part of.
"Domestic policies shouldn't impact and restrict trade," she said.
"What we're seeing in Europe is very concerning for us, the way Europeans farm, they want to impose standards on the rest of the world.
"We need recognition of flexibility and different needs for different countries - we're pushing back very hard on this."
Ms McCluskey also told the attentive audience at the Darwin Convention Centre that consumers were getting a whole lot of different truths, mostly via social media, which were crowding out the facts.
"It's important to counter-act," she said, adding that efforts needed to be concentrated on the general public rather than on people in the industry.
There was also a message about the importance of having enough data to underpin any truths being pushed.
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Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
