CONSUMERS come from Planet Price or Planet Story, Telstra futurist Michael Ossipoff told the Northern Territory Cattlemen's Association (NTCA) conference in Darwin last month.

The red meat industrys Target 100 program communicates with those on Planet Story. As it reaches its third birthday, the program, showcasing progress by cattle and sheep farmers and researchers towards 100 sustainability goals, has put together some statistics about its reach.

Target 100 has completed over 90 research and development projects, accumulated 230-plus producer case studies, created over 80 YouTube videos, enticed over 10,000 Facebook followers, developed 10 curriculum-aligned resources for schools, reached two million Aussies through cinema ads and shared the story of Australian beef and lamb producers with 20,000 urban consumers at events across the country, the program reported in its latest newsletter.

A more recent initiative has been Target 100 Responds, a section of the Target 100 website dedicated to addressing criticisms of the red meat industries.

The necessity to address criticism came up last year, when the US-made movie Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret came to Australia. The movie claimed to uncover a conspiracy against the environment by the beef industry.

Target 100 addressed the movies claims at length, and in measured tones.

It noted that Australian beef production systems are not like those in the US, do not produce any clearing in the Amazon, and that the industry has a range of active research projects looking at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other aspects of its environmental footprint.

Target 100 has its own comprehensive website, a presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

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Targeting cattle production myths