The beef industry and conservationists have taken another step towards a new era of common ground on environmental issues affecting agriculture.
The first meeting between cattle industry representatives and the Australian arm of the World Wildlife Fund has just taken place in Brisbane.
Members of Meat and Livestock Australia, the Cattle Council of Australia and Queensland’s AgForce all attended.
Both groups have declined to give details of the goodwill meeting, only describing it as “amicable” and acknowledging that further talks are planned.
But both groups have previously expressed the desire to tackle future environmental debates with a greater level of understanding and less conflict.
The budding relationship is particularly sensitive in Queensland, where WWF has been at loggerheads with farmers over land management and reef protection issues.
The Brisbane meeting had its genesis in Denver last month at the first Global Conference on Sustainable Beef, which attracted farmers from the world’s major beef producing countries, the WWF and fast food giant McDonalds.
The conference, which aimed to improve co-operation on environment issues, was triggered by the growing criticism of water use and carbon emissions in livestock production.
