Sir John Keys on how beef can win the hearts and minds of the middle class

This was a key message from an extraordinary lineup of international speakers including scientists, politicians and economists at the Cattle Australian Symposium at Beef Australia in Rockhampton.

With a theme of being influential, the event attracted an audience of hundreds keen to hear insights from abroad, and from other sectors, on some of the biggest challenges facing their industry, including how livestock is perceived in the climate change discussion.

Keynote speaker former New Zealand Prime Minister Sir John Key said the path to winning the argument that agriculture was doing the right thing for the world laid very much in talking to the right people.

It was exactly the same with politics, he said.

Mr Key was the Kiwi PM from 2008 to 2016, winning three general elections as leader of the centre-right National Party. He led the country through the aftermath of the global financial crisis and is considered the country's most popular PM.

He said at the same time the world needed more food, more and more people wanted to understand where their food comes from and how the environment was being affected by its production.

That created the opportunity to tell the story of the value of livestock, he said.

"This is who you shouldn't be talking to - environmental non-government organisations, the Greens, the Teals," Sir John said.

"They will never change their minds and you don't really need to be bothered by that because there are a bunch of other people in middle Australia who understand that if you close down today, you'll be replaced by other suppliers who are far worse for the planet."

These were the people whose questions the beef industry should be answering, both Mr Key and other speakers, including one of the world's leading authorities in animal genomics Alison Van Eenennaam, said.

She urged the industry to "get out there and tell compelling narratives because alternate facts have real environmental impacts".

Other speakers at the event included globally-acclaimed economist Ralph Schoellhammer and West Australian farmer and agribusiness leader Sue Middleton, who shared her perspectives on the social licence challenges the trade has faced.

Managing Director of Australian Eggs Rowan McMonnies shared the story of how the egg industry has navigated dynamic consumer, community, and regulatory pressures.