When you appease a bully you invite more of the same.

We need a Churchill to fight them on the beaches; not a Chamberlain.

Peta has demonstrated that its word is worthless and they can't be trusted.

The only thing to do is a massive publicity and sales campaign to counter their propaganda.

Firstly, a moments thought would have ruled out clips as a solution.

PETA would still object because of the stress it will cause animals let alone having an environmental disaster on our hands with plastic clips littering the country side. Biodegradable or not.

Next step for PETA will be to rule out castration rings because they serve the same function as clips.

Next will be tail docking without local anaesthetic.

But the biggest challenge for the wool industry is building demand.

Do you think if the AWI had been able to build demand for wool over the last 15 years we would be having this debate?

With the AUD/USD looking to stay above US.9500c for some time, without a massive pickup in demand we could see greasy wool futures back at 450c/kg.

PETA would be irrelevant as would the wool industry if we ever see those prices again.

To say our industry representatives are doing a good job is a joke.

We are past the mulesing debate.

If we think we can change consumers minds that mulesing is imperative then they will simple not buy the product.

A picture of mulesed lamb is unsaleable.

Wool is a luxury product that targets consumers that value these issues, perhaps they are being made conscious of the issue by a pack of unscrupulous extremists, but images within a consumers mind is everything.

The alternatives are developing to meet the target date, and let's not write our R&D body off before we even get to the starting line.

The more we criticise this issue the more fuel we add to the fire.

What this issue really reflects is how disconnected growers are from the end consumer.

The auction system creates price discovery, but not consumer focussed supply chains.

Why does each level of the chain have to buy and sell the product from the next level in the chain, effectively commodity trading?

Does that create trust and aligned goals within a supply chain?

Perhaps this mulesing issue will help our industry in two ways: 1. by creating differentiated consumer focuessed segmented supply chains; and 2. unfortunately to say we might get rid of the 30% of growers who can't adapt to change.

Wool has a great opportunity to market itself as natural and sustainable, sure we have to over come some hurdles, but for those growers who are adaptable and consumer focussed, there is a future in it.

Let's stop hurting our industry further by criticising it.