A United States cattle industry leader has warned Australian producers about a new movement to produce cell-cultured protein and urged industry to form an international presence to halt its progression.
National Cattlemen's Beef Association's former president Todd Wilkinson put the call out to Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association conference attendees at Alice Springs, NT, and delivered a stirring message about "radical animal activists" who were writing the script for farming operation policy.
The similarities between the challenges for American and Australian producers came as a shock to Mr Wilkinson and his biggest concern, was a new "phenomenon".
"This is one of our biggest challenges in the next decade," he said.
"They want to take a cow cell and put it into a bioreactor, added with a heap of goop and generate meat cells."
This technology itself was not the threat, according to Mr Wilkinson, but its end purpose was.
"They want to capture about 20 per cent of the meat blended product," he said.
Australia produces more meat than it can eat, he said and the US imports large amounts for its ground beef production.
"This goop is focused on primarily beef cell production and it will be put into ground beef," Mr Wilkinson said.
"If they can make 20pc of ground beef, some Australian producers will not be here economically and out of business."
Mr Wilkinson believed Australia was the "definition of big cattle country" and had a significant role to play at the international table of discussions, which were impacting global protein producers.
"The call is to Australia, you need a strong fighting national organisation but it is the producer who must push this discussion and join the fight," he said.
"On the international front, we need Australia so badly, we cannot do this alone."
Mr Wilkinson believed general understanding of protein production had also changed significantly.
"The detachment between the urban sector and rural sector has changed and its caused a lot of issues," he said.
"People who do not have an idea of what a heifer or steer is, is all of sudden telling me they know how to run my operation better.
"Activists were coming at us and not backing up, and we had no way to stop it.
"Traceability, sustainability and all of the buzz words were all of a sudden dictating my operation in South Dakota."
So, Mr Wilkinson looked to his state representative body to get involved and he encouraged producers to do the same.
"I rapidly determined that one voice was just a voice crying in the wilderness but a group of voices can have an impact," he said.
Mr Wilkinson also believed the message from activists was being delivered across the world in a conceded effort.
Activism organisations in the US have an annual operating budget of $600 million US and Mr Wilkinson believed their goal was to end animal agriculture.
"The NCBA are a big dog in the US and you would think we could stand up and push back, but boy, did I get an education," he said.
"Activists are changing the dynamic and suddenly politicians are listening to the voices saying farming is bad and animal agriculture is bad."
Mr Wilkinson strongly urged producers to listen up and take note of mandates taking hold in Europe.
"Governments are telling producers to depopulate, the Dutch are geared to buy back 3000 farms and the Irish have been told to reduce cow numbers by 200,000 head," he said.
"These animal rights organisations are with working with governments to develop the rules for herd management and animal science.
"If we all sit in our isolation area and producers are only concerned with what happens in Australia - they (activists) are going to run over us like a Mack truck because they are 10 years ahead of us."
