THE man who is leading a charge to radically overhaul Australia's beef industry has called for the MSA grading system to be "shredded" in a bid to expel "rubbish" meat from the nation's retail shelves.
It's the latest provocative sally from rebel NSW beef processor JR McDonald, whose inflammatory stance has continued to intensify before a rally in Armidale on February 27 when he will spearhead demands from dis-gruntled cattle producers to re-structure the beef industry.
What began as a resolution in the NSW Parliament late last year to overhaul beef labelling in the State now appears to have escalated into full-scale revolution, as Mr McDonald and his allies play to concerns over what they see as decreasing returns to producers.
Lax rules governing imports from BSE-infected countries and recent abattoir closures in Young in NSW and two plants on the Darling Downs add further fuel to an already-volatile mix of high emotion gripping isolated pockets of the sector.
Feelings seem particularly high in the New England region of NSW, home of JR McDonald and his processing plant Bindaree Beef at Inverell and the base of NSW independent MP Richard Torbay, who introduced the Food Amendment Meat Grading Bill in that State in December.
Under the bill, which Mr McDonald has since advocated for national adoption, all table beef (excluding mince and premium tenderloin cuts) from eight-tooth and older animals will be labelled as 'low grade' or 'low quality'.
Mr McDonald concedes low quality meat from eight-tooth cattle will take a hit in price, only to be compensated by the higher prices consumers will pay for the so-called premium product.
However, details on how the plan will work once proclaimed in NSW and how it will translate into higher domestic beef consumption and an overall increase in producer returns remain sketchy.
The thinking behind the proposed model, as Queensland Country Life understands, is that labelling meat from eight-tooth cows as 'low grade' will shift the buying behaviour of consumers towards paying more for better quality beef from younger cattle, in turn encouraging the beef supply chain to produce more beef from 0, 2 and 4 tooth beasts.
The economics of the proposal have sounded alarm bells among those at the industry's peak organisations.
Cattle Council Australia councillor and AgForce director Justin McDonnell said the proposal would take beef marketing back 20 years.
"The sad thing with Torbay is that we're going to have for the first time ever, meat on our shelves that's going to be labelled low grade - I cannot see how having meat labelled low quality is going to advance the cause of Australian cattle producers," Mr McDonnell said.
"If you've got product on the shelf labelled low quality, the concern for our industry is that consumers will drift to com-peting proteins such as chicken and pork, which don't have the same labelling requirements.
"That can't be good for the beef industry."
Mr McDonald was coy when initially contacted by QCL on Monday, at first referring questions about the proposed grading system to his daughter.
When pressed for a response, Mr McDonald said beef pro-ducers' returns would increase once customer satisfaction with beef was improved.
"The consumer doesn't like what we're selling at the mo-ment," he said.
"We have to get rid of the bad rubbish that's on the market and cow beef is having a major effect on it.
"If meat is labelled low quality people know exactly what they're buying."
Underpinning the strategy is Mr McDonald's call to dismantle the industry's decade long Meat Standards Australia (MSA) grading system, which labels beef, lamb and sheep meat with a grade and recommended cooking method to identify eating quality according to consumer perceptions.
When asked how his grading system would differ from MSA, Mr McDonald said he would not release any details prior to the Armidale forum.
"Why would I tell people what we're going to say at the meeting? If I do that no one will come," he said.
"But I can tell you that what you've got there (referring to MSA) you can shred it, because it's no good."
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