Chairman of the Red Meat Advisory Council, Ross Keane, confirmed that the RMAC Board last week received the results from a study it commissioned examining the beef industry’s credentials as a responsible caretaker of the environmental, livestock and human resources under its management.

The review – funded through Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) and undertaken by Deloitte’s – assessed the beef industry’s past and present performance and identified available data to enable potential indicators to be developed to assess and track the industry’s sustainability performance into the future.

Well-respected beef industry identity, Jim Cudmore, led a small team to examine the report and provide advice on how best to proceed with the further development of, and consultation around, measures that the industry can potentially use to demonstrate its historical and current achievements, as well in identifying what areas require special attention into the future.

“Importantly, this is an industry-led initiative, the timing around which has been deliberately aligned with RMAC’s concurrent efforts in developing the red meat and livestock industry’s fourth five-year Meat Industry Strategic Plan, or MISP4”, Mr Keane said.

“The work around sustainability that we are co-ordinating on behalf of the Australian beef industry falls very neatly into MISP4. Indeed, MISP4 is being developed to frame the key components of broad-base sustainability for the red meat and livestock industry as a whole, and this in itself will provide direction and consistency to the efforts of individual industries in the future”, Mr Keane added

“While it is the beef industry leading the way in this area at the moment, we need to ensure that we have an appropriate framework for other industries to follow if and as they choose in the future. Whether it’s tomorrow or in ten years’ time, it’s important that our industries are well-equipped to respond to any messages or concerns coming back from consumers”, Mr Keane said.

“From an RMAC perspective, we will now look to support our beef industry constituents in developing a suitable timeline to review and consult industry and external stakeholders on a range of proposed indicators for guiding and reporting on the economic, environmental and social aspects of how we do business.

“Across-the-board, be it for the beef sector or for the red meat and livestock industry as a whole, we are committed to using meaningful and practical indicators, developed through consultation, to underpin our sustainability credentials and ensure their continuous improvement” Mr Keane said.

Source: Red Meat Advisory Council