In this week's week's episode of The Weekly Grill podcast series, host Kerry Lonergan turns up the heat on veteran red meat industry identity Richard Rains.

Prior to his retirement Richard was the head of Sanger Australia, one of the nation's largest non-packer exporters.

He is widely credited for convincing global burger giant McDonald's US to shift its grinding beef policy from domestic only, to also including imported product from Australia. McDonald's global has since become Australia's single largest beef customer.

A passionate crusader for the red meat industry, Richard has strong views on wide ranging topics including fake meat, the greater need for branding to lift Australian beef out of the commodity space, and how the industry should respond to attacks from animal activists and environmentalists over its sustainability performance.