The Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock discusses the future of beef

On September 8, 40 participants from across Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific met to identify the drivers of change relevant to Oceania livestock systems.

The day-long event was designed to identify the linkages and feedback between different drivers and link identified drivers to four livestock sustainability domains:

• Food and nutrition security
• Livelihoods and economic growth
• Animal health and welfare
• Climate and natural resource use

The consultation was part of the Global Agenda for Sustainable Livestock (GASL), a partnership of livestock sector stakeholders committed to the sustainable development of the industry. The organisation’s aim is to build consensus on the path towards sustainability and catalyses coherent and collective practice change through dialogue, consultation and joint analysis.

Jacob Betros, Manager of Beef Sustainability at Meat & Livestock Australia, assisted in hosting the consultation and said the information gained from the region was pivotal to understanding the influence the industry can have globally.

“The group identified a number of geopolitical, socio-economic, technological and environmental drivers that are impacting different aspects of the industry,” Mr Betros said.

“This is a key first step in understanding not only what changes we need to implement to respond to these impacts, but also what activities need to be reinforced.”

Key to responding to impacts is developing multi-stakeholder partnerships (MSP), which is a key approach implemented by GASL.

“Multi-stakeholder partnerships between organisations and countries can help integrate value chains, ensure consistent messaging, and address multiple points at once by combining our knowledge and efforts,” he said.

“We’ll be taking everything we learnt and our ideas to the GASL meeting in October to help drive further actions globally.”

The outcomes from the consultation will be presented at the 12th GASL MSP being held in Thailand, from 30 October to 3 November. A small delegation from Australia and New Zealand will attend the meeting in person. Those wishing to attend in person can register via THIS LINK.