Australian agriculture needs to ramp up the implementation of measurable sustainability practices, Australia's first Special Representative for the sector told UNE researchers.
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Su McCluskey toured UNE's agricultural research facilities and spoke with researchers working at the interface of agriculture and climate change during a one-day visit to Armidale.
As the inaugural Special Representative for Australian Agriculture, Ms McCluskey is a ministerially-appointed but independent trade envoy advocating for Australia's ag interests across the globe.
She was invited to UNE by SMART Region Incubator (SRI) Director, Dr Lou Conway, who introduced Ms McCluskey to key researchers, SRI founders, and innovative local farmers to support the Special Representative's international advocacy.
At the SRI's NOVA headquarters, Ms McCluskey told an invited audience of researchers and founders that access for Australia's international agricultural exports will increasingly be determined by our ability to back claims of sustainability.
During nine international trips last year, she time and again saw a determination to make sustainability, and the data around it, a deciding factor in market access. This is particularly true in the European Union.
Australian farmers may not agree with the policies emerging in the EU, Ms McCluskey said - many EU farmers very publicly don't agree with it either - "but we've got to be aware that perception and myths, particularly coupled with the power of the NGOs in Europe, can drive a lot of perception globally".
"So we need to make sure that when it comes to things such as sustainability, we're doing a lot of work to be able to back up and demonstrate what we're saying. If we're saying we're going to be clean and green, we've got to be able to prove it, and we're going to be asked to do that more and more."
Ms McCluskey believes that in many respects, Australia is ahead of its international peers. As an example, she pointed to the Australian Agriculture Sustainability Framework, which links with the goals of each of Australia's agricultural sectors, and also outward to international Sustainable Development Goals.
The challenge, she said, is not so much about building good tools for measurement and compliance with sustainability programs, but getting them to work in practice in the hands of busy farmers.
"This is going to be a big compliance burden in terms of data collection and measurement and using the tools and reporting. How do we actually line them up with what we're already doing?"
