Aussie expat Ian McConnel president of GRSB for another term

Mr McConnel, who is the director of sustainability for Tyson Foods International, has been working with the GRSB for many years. Before joining Tyson, he was with the World Wildlife Fund, leading their approach to creating and communicating a more sustainable beef industry.

Since 2012, GRSB has been working to advance sustainable beef through leadership, science and multi-stakeholder engagement.

More than 500 companies and producer organisations are engaged in its work. It has regionally- focused beef sustainability roundtables and initiatives in Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Europe, Mexico, New Zealand, Paraguay, Southern Africa, the United States and other countries.

In the past year, GRSB has grown its membership to over 100, with new partners including Datamars, Acceligen and Woolworths.

Collectively, its members are responsible for more than two thirds of cross-border beef trade.

In November, the organisation hosted a global conference in Denver in the United States and COP27 saw several members of GRSB's leadership team join panels to discuss how it was working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the beef supply chain.

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Mr McConnel said a greatly increased membership over the past 12 months, especially in Australia, had demonstrated the GRSB's relevance and it's ability to support a global recognition of the importance of sustainable beef production.

This year, GRSB would to continue to grow its interactions in key dialogues around sustainable food and drive on-the-ground local actions, he said.

At the Denver conference, Mr McConnel said key to success would be producers 'telling us and the rest of the value chain what sustainability means on their farms and in their businesses.'

"What we want to do is drive change but change that works for producers," he said.

"We want to know more about this so we can communicate it to consumers and build trust because that will keep beef a part of a thriving food system, where it needs to be for a range of nutritional, social and equitable reasons."

Another Australian expat, Justin Sherrard, is on the GRSB executive committee, as secretary-treasurer.

Mr Sherrard is the global strategist for animal protein in Rabobank's food and agribusiness research group, based in the Netherlands.

GRSB is working towards reducing the global warming impact of beef by 30 per cent by 2030.

However, at its Denver conference last year the point was continually made that sustainability in its entirety does not mean carbon emissions, and that the beef industry should beware 'carbon tunnel vision'.

The GRSB's belief is that sustainable beef production can, and should, have a net positive impact on nature.

Its work in the nature positive space hones in on establishing metrics to effectively measure, track, report and verify progress. It says many producers are already net positive contributors to nature.

Hillary Fenwick, whose day job is with the National Wildlife Federation, is co-lead of GRSB's nature positive working group.

"We want to be ambitious, but also to ensure we are seeing continuing improvement and results," she said.

Adopting science based land management practices that improve ecosystems services, maintain healthier soils, generate additional carbon sequestration, promote more efficient water usage and increase biodiversity would be a priority, she said.

So too promoting practices that help recover degraded pastures.

And eliminating illegal deforestation and illegal conversion as fast as possible is key work in this space.