Right now, our food system is broken. It’s dominated by profit hungry big businesses and is a major contributor to nature destruction in Australia and globally, primarily to make room for more beef cattle. But we know, there’s a better way.

We can have a thriving and sustainable Australian agriculture industry which nurtures landscapes, supports communities, and rewards farmers. The two major supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, are big players in this system and have immense power which they need to be using for good.

Add your name to our open letter calling for Coles and Woolworths to meaningfully rid their supply-chains of beef linked to deforestation.

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of beef is sold in our supermarkets each year - if we get this right and Coles and Woolworths meaningfully rid deforestation and nature destruction from their supply chains, it could change the future for Australian nature overnight.

Add your name today. We need to show both supermarkets that the community expects them live up to their commitment.

Full text of the open letter

We love this country. Our unique landscapes and wildlife are like nowhere else on earth. Aussie nature is part of our identity and culture - from the Murray-Darling to the Great Barrier Reef. Nature provides us with the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. So many industries from agriculture to tourism are reliant on nature. For many of us, time in nature is the backdrop for so many precious memories with friends and family. But Australia's food system is failing nature.

The forests, wetlands, and rivers we love and depend on are being destroyed at a dangerous rate. The way we grow our food is a major cause of this destruction.

Every year hundreds of thousands of hectares of habitat for animals like the koala and gang-gang cockatoo are bulldozed to make room for more cattle. And deforestation doesn’t just impact animals on the land, it’s also destroying our reefs. In Queensland, deforestation, mainly for beef, causes erosion and run off that is sending 600,000 dump trucks of coral-killing mud down rivers that flow into the Great Barrier Reef every year. Deforestation has been identified by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee as one of the major threats to the Great Barrier Reef. Much of the beef that is driving this destruction will end up in a Coles or Woolworths fridge.

Coles and Woolworths, we should be able to walk into one of your supermarkets to pick up food for our families and know that it is not linked to the bulldozing of our wildlife’s homes or killing of the Reef. But right now, we can’t.

You promised your beef would be deforestation-free by the end of 2025. You’ve broken your promise. We call on you to meaningfully implement your commitment to selling only deforestation-free beef and to publish a plan and timeline outlining how you intend to do this. We need to know exactly how you will play your part in stopping the destruction of ecosystems and supporting farmers that are producing food while protecting and restoring nature on their land.

Nature needs us now. It needs you now.