LIVESTOCK was the theme of the 10th Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) held over the weekend in Berlin and Australia’s representative, Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, Anne Ruston, said discussions left no doubt about the increasing demand for more sustainable use of natural resources in livestock production, and higher animal welfare standards.
“Australia is a world leader in livestock farming,” Minister Ruston said.
“Our livestock industries are productive, profitable, sustainable and subject to some of the highest animal health and welfare standards in the world. Our farmers are great innovators, and our livestock and livestock products are in considerable demand all over the world.
“Australia’s edge in competitiveness rests with the high quality of our livestock and livestock products, and our unrivalled biosecurity status.
“Farmers will also need to be able to demonstrate the strongest possible environmental sustainability and animal welfare credentials to ensure future market access—industry must develop effective and unique ways to do this, and innovation will be critical here too.”
Minister Ruston also represented Australia at the Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Conference as part of the GFFA.
“It was an invaluable opportunity for Australia to play its role in shaping the future of global agriculture,” Minister Ruston said.
“The conference is the largest of its type in the world, this year attended by more than 80 agricultural ministers.
“Australia has much expertise and experience to offer, but there’s much we can learn as well—we must continue to innovate and improve.
“The event was also an opportunity for Australia’s world-leading agriculture sector to take the international centre stage, and demonstrate how we’re ideally placed to help meet challenges, such as feeding a growing world population, and the increased movement of people, animals and products around the globe.”
“Sustainability” is the new catch phrase to pull at the heart of consumers and is being pushed by those that will not pay for it, they will sit back and make money from either providing certification or selling a certified product while the producer will be loaded with more red tape for no profit.
There are enough certified sustainable products out there now to realise these programs are a failure for producers.
And are people really wanting these products as we are told?
The last World Sustainability Report I read stated that the uptake of certified sustainable products was growing at a rate around 2-3percent yet the number of organisations providing certified sustainable programs was over 10 times that, that’s where the money is to be made in “sustainable” and they probably have the loudest voices!
Did Minister Ruston provide evidence for her opinion? Because I personally do not believe it to be true. I base this on the rampant consumerism in Australia where pleasure activities take precedence over everything else and sustainability be damned when it comes to personal pleasure.
In fact our economy is based on unsustainable consumerism. Remember the federal government of the time back in 2008 handed out free money to lots of people to keep the “economy” going.
Want to fly 1000km just to watch some sport live. Fine go right ahead. Want to new mobile smart phone but your existing phone is only one year old and still has years left. Sure go right ahead. Want to build a house with five bedrooms and a pool. Sure go right ahead.
No this sustainability thing is a furphy, but someone will be seeking to make money out of it and has the ear of someone in a position of power.