Global insights through a local lens … Jenny Turnbull, from Holbrook, Georgie Kelly, from Rugby, and Genevieve Fleming, from Wagga, at this month’s Pastoral Agronomy Service (PAS) conference at Gundagai. Photo: Supplied.
Australia has the chance to capitalise on its “clean, green” branding to US consumers in the wake of widespread agricultural chaos being inflicted by the Trump administration, an international affairs expert has told a Riverina agronomy conference.
Federal layoffs to frontline food inspectors in the US have sparked public concerns about the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to safeguard the country’s food supply.
High-profile global futurist Dr Keith Suter believes the widespread rollback of public health protections in the US opens wide an opportunity for Australia to promote its clean, green and safe produce to the US market in the wake of the unrest.
Dr Suter warned Trump 2.0 was very different from Trump 1.0 as he outlined the policies of the US president and their implications for Australia during a keynote address to the Pasture Agronomy Service Conference at Gundagai earlier this month.
He said Trump was pushing forward with an economic agenda to rebuild the US industry behind tariff walls, withdrawing from international agreements, dismantling the administrative state, reducing taxation on corporations and attempting to expand the nation’s geographical footprint via the acquisition of Canada, the Panama Canal and Greenland.
Withdrawal from international agreements would increase turbulence in a fragile global economy and delay progress on climate change negotiations, according to Dr Suter.
“The US is alienating its allies and will waste time and effort on a potentially failed mission to expand its geographic footprint. We are going to have a very challenging next four years as who knows where we will be in the long term,” the respected futurist told conference-goers.
“Trump is returning to the 1930s when tariffs accidentally extended the impact of the Great Depression. The American consumers will end up paying for those tariffs through increased cost of living, not China.”
But Dr Suter also warned that with the US importing less Chinese goods, there would be a flow-on effect to Australia, given less raw material would be imported by China to produce goods for the US market.
“Australia relies on international trade and needs a free trade system, not a tariff war,” he stated.
He highlighted implications for the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) defence agreement and China potentially filling the power vacuum left by the reduced US role in international affairs.
“How can we rely on the United States when it is willing to throw its own long-term ally, Ukraine, under the bus?” Dr Suter asked.
“These are real implications for the future of Australia’s defence.
Well-regarded global and economic futurist Dr Keith Suter says Australia has an opportunity to target US consumers with its “clean, green” branding. Photo: Supplied.
“We need to think about acquiring more defence weapons ourselves while the Europeans are reopening the debate over whether they should acquire nuclear weapons. That has been a very bad development.”
Dr Suter – who has been described as a master of “making local sense of world affairs and ensuring the right decisions are made for clear skies tomorrow” – explained the Trump government was practising “social Darwinism – or survival of the fittest”.
He was concerned the pursuit of “trickle down” economics in the US to protect corporates and wealthy individuals from high taxation rates, would be copied in Australia and exacerbate social tensions by widening the gap between rich and poor.
“Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency are causing chaos in the US bureaucracy by reducing its impact internationally,” he said.
The silver lining to that cloud is: “US consumers will begin to doubt the standards of agricultural purity as they are cutting back on their food inspectors, resulting in an opportunity for Australia to promote its produce as clean and green.”
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