March 13, 2025 • 7 mins
High-profile Southland sheep, beef and dairy farmer on his "pine tree menu," a humorous dig at carbon farming. Plus, he comments on Southland Federated Farmers' duck shooting stoush with Fish and Game.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you want some proof that farmers are clever people,
he's an example. His name is Dean Ravage. He's a
Southland sheep, beef and dairy farmer. He's a former Zander
McDonald award went away back in twenty fourteen. He's involved
with Federated Farmers at a local and national level, and
he is a strong anti carbon farming campaigner. He was
weighing lambs the other morning and his mind drifted towards
(00:24):
a new restaurant. I guess, Dean Rabbage, you would call
it diversification from your south and farming activities. Tell me
a wee bit about your new restaurant. I think it's
called Forester.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Yes, the mine did wander a
wee bit, Wayne, Lamb's out of the morning. Just with
the continuation of whole farm of fire station down here,
sort of starting to get a wee bit angry along
with a lot of other people in the community about
the loss of jobs and the loss of spectacular farmland
to exotic pine trees. So sort of got me thinking
(00:57):
about we're not going to have much food left in
the future if we carry on the traditionary that we're
going so come up with a bit of an alterative
menu being basically based on plantation forestry.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Oh and it's brilliant because and this is going to
be posted on our Facebook page. But here's an example
for you. Here's your menu for starters. You can select
four pines, the selection of four exotic juvenile pine cones,
served with a bed of virtue signaling with a biodiversity hummus.
For that, you'll pay twenty five carbon credits. Here's an
(01:29):
example of one of your mains. It's called needle noodles,
freshly gathered pine needles tossed, tossed in a carbon credits source,
seasoned with overseas pollution. For that, you'll pay just thirty
four carbon credits. And one of my favorites, I think
is the main. I guess it's like an age steak.
(01:50):
In this case, it's an aged thirty year old ring
premium thirty year old aged Pinus radiata ring served with
environmental damage which comes with a Paris accord. Jo, how
long did it make you take you to make all
this stuff up?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh, to be honest, not long. Once you've sort of
got the ball rolling it sort of. I know one
of those Eureka moments, so we ran with it, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, and of course you can finish off with dessert.
You can choose pine tree cone choose from either pine
douglas or macrocarp or topping sprinkled with MP tokenism. This
is brilliant. It will be posted on our Facebook page.
Go and have a look at it. And often a
laughter is the best medicine. But this is a real
(02:35):
serious problem, especially down on your neck of the words.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, Jamie, we're still seeing farm sales for whole farm forestation,
mainly pines, and we're talking absolutely fantastic land. Look, all
of it could be cultivated with the two will drive
Chector if you had to. And it's all happening well
after the December four announcement of the moratorium on this
sort of stuff happening forestreet companies and and land owners
(03:01):
exploriting some pretty gray areas. And the legislation, which obviously
hasn't passed through the House yet. We hear that it's
not going to be officially law until October. So in
the meantime there's literally a gold brush going on down
here with forestry companies sort of for lack of better term,
praying on some vulnerable people or some people that are
in an awkward situations perhaps and plowing on with planting
(03:23):
all this great south and land and pine trees.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
See, there's lots of places you can plant pine trees
for forestry or carbon credits, but it doesn't need to
be on good as you say. In some cases down there,
I know of arable land, land that's been used for
cropping for growing food is now growing pine trees. It
is criminal.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, that's criminal. When you pull out of a paddict
with a combine harvester and follow it with the planting
tree for pines, you've got to ask some questions. And
there's also a whole lot of land that could be
easily converted to dearying as well. So it's just there's
the fly on effects in the rural communities that we're
really starting to feel now. It's the schools of sports clubs,
local sharing gang. I know, as talk to the Lost
(04:06):
ten Center their business overnight, it's really starts to hurt
because their money flows right through the community, whereas forestry
means nothing for the locals that does exact opposites. So
we just really needed, well want some memps to stand
up and really enforce their laws or the moratorium that
they announced them December before. But we just don't seem
(04:26):
to be getting it.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Okay, Well, you know, forestry is very important. It's our
fourth biggest industry and I'm not knocking forestry, but my
fear for a lot of these plantations that are happening
out there, these farm conversions, is that they will never
be harvested. They will just become a climate and biodiversity threat. Anyhow,
that's not the only thing that's happening in Southland. Gee,
it's all on It's high noon at the ok Corral.
(04:49):
Federated Farmers Southland, Federated Farmers, you're involved with them. You're
wanting people who are shooting ducks in Southland this season
to buy their license from another region. You guys are
literally at war with fishing game in Southland.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, unfortunately we are, Jamie. Nobody ever wanted to get
this far as what it's got. But unfortunately for an
organization that relies heavily on the goodwill of farmers to
access land for both hunting and or game birder and fishing,
they seem to be very very good at putting in
roadblocks to make their lives very difficult with really unrealistic
(05:27):
and costly legislation which is just holding up a lot
of processes for everybody. So yeah, we're sort of just
encouraging people not to share legally, I still want you
to get a license, but yeah, just make sure we
bite out a region.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Jason Herrick, who's the president of Federated Farmers down in Southland,
saying go and buy your license from Hawke's Bay or
Greater Wellington. She's a sad old day when Wellington is
more farmer friendly than Southland.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, it is. Unfortunately, this we as you got going
on the fishing game seems to be just isolated to
any of the word too. So I know there's still
a lot of really good relationships out there with the
rest of the country.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Also, you've got a bit of an issue with fish
and game over duck population in South lond At the moment,
they've had a magnificent breeding season, but the problem is
that the crops are being decimated by ducks.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, there's been a good breeding season. Obviously there's a
lot of water around early on in the spring, but yeah,
there's been a fair bit of crop damage, especially in
brescas that are close to sort of some of these
awesome wheatlands and protected streams at the farmers that we've
been fencing off and creating. So yeah, there's been a
bit of damage going around, so we just, yeah, we'd
(06:36):
like to get some sort of exemption so there can
just guilt to them with the easiest way possible, with
some lead applied to high velocity, just to make sure
that we can have enough enough when to crop.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Really, that's politically incorrect to say that it's dark hunting,
not duck shooting. Hey, now, I was just looking finally,
I was just looking at your forester menu. And if
you're a bit short on money, and you know, farming
can be a tough gig, and you've only got twelve
carbon credits available to spend at your restaurant, you could
go for the start of the Poverty Porridge, an empty
(07:06):
bowl of local produce from Heartland, New Zealand, including empty schools,
sports clubs, and abandoned towns. Dean Ravage. Congratulations, this is very,
very clever. It will be on our Facebook page. Looking
forward to some of the great feedback you're going to
get from your new restaurant.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
No thanks, very much. Jamie appreciate it
If you want some proof that farmers are clever people,
he's an example. His name is Dean Ravage. He's a
Southland sheep, beef and dairy farmer. He's a former Zander
McDonald award went away back in twenty fourteen. He's involved
with Federated Farmers at a local and national level, and
he is a strong anti carbon farming campaigner. He was
weighing lambs the other morning and his mind drifted towards
(00:24):
a new restaurant. I guess, Dean Rabbage, you would call
it diversification from your south and farming activities. Tell me
a wee bit about your new restaurant. I think it's
called Forester.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Yeah, good afternoon, Jamie. Yes, the mine did wander a
wee bit, Wayne, Lamb's out of the morning. Just with
the continuation of whole farm of fire station down here,
sort of starting to get a wee bit angry along
with a lot of other people in the community about
the loss of jobs and the loss of spectacular farmland
to exotic pine trees. So sort of got me thinking
(00:57):
about we're not going to have much food left in
the future if we carry on the traditionary that we're
going so come up with a bit of an alterative
menu being basically based on plantation forestry.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Oh and it's brilliant because and this is going to
be posted on our Facebook page. But here's an example
for you. Here's your menu for starters. You can select
four pines, the selection of four exotic juvenile pine cones,
served with a bed of virtue signaling with a biodiversity hummus.
For that, you'll pay twenty five carbon credits. Here's an
(01:29):
example of one of your mains. It's called needle noodles,
freshly gathered pine needles tossed, tossed in a carbon credits source,
seasoned with overseas pollution. For that, you'll pay just thirty
four carbon credits. And one of my favorites, I think
is the main. I guess it's like an age steak.
(01:50):
In this case, it's an aged thirty year old ring
premium thirty year old aged Pinus radiata ring served with
environmental damage which comes with a Paris accord. Jo, how
long did it make you take you to make all
this stuff up?
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Oh, to be honest, not long. Once you've sort of
got the ball rolling it sort of. I know one
of those Eureka moments, so we ran with it, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Yeah, and of course you can finish off with dessert.
You can choose pine tree cone choose from either pine
douglas or macrocarp or topping sprinkled with MP tokenism. This
is brilliant. It will be posted on our Facebook page.
Go and have a look at it. And often a
laughter is the best medicine. But this is a real
(02:35):
serious problem, especially down on your neck of the words.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, Jamie, we're still seeing farm sales for whole farm forestation,
mainly pines, and we're talking absolutely fantastic land. Look, all
of it could be cultivated with the two will drive
Chector if you had to. And it's all happening well
after the December four announcement of the moratorium on this
sort of stuff happening forestreet companies and and land owners
(03:01):
exploriting some pretty gray areas. And the legislation, which obviously
hasn't passed through the House yet. We hear that it's
not going to be officially law until October. So in
the meantime there's literally a gold brush going on down
here with forestry companies sort of for lack of better term,
praying on some vulnerable people or some people that are
in an awkward situations perhaps and plowing on with planting
(03:23):
all this great south and land and pine trees.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
See, there's lots of places you can plant pine trees
for forestry or carbon credits, but it doesn't need to
be on good as you say. In some cases down there,
I know of arable land, land that's been used for
cropping for growing food is now growing pine trees. It
is criminal.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, that's criminal. When you pull out of a paddict
with a combine harvester and follow it with the planting
tree for pines, you've got to ask some questions. And
there's also a whole lot of land that could be
easily converted to dearying as well. So it's just there's
the fly on effects in the rural communities that we're
really starting to feel now. It's the schools of sports clubs,
local sharing gang. I know, as talk to the Lost
(04:06):
ten Center their business overnight, it's really starts to hurt
because their money flows right through the community, whereas forestry
means nothing for the locals that does exact opposites. So
we just really needed, well want some memps to stand
up and really enforce their laws or the moratorium that
they announced them December before. But we just don't seem
(04:26):
to be getting it.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Okay, Well, you know, forestry is very important. It's our
fourth biggest industry and I'm not knocking forestry, but my
fear for a lot of these plantations that are happening
out there, these farm conversions, is that they will never
be harvested. They will just become a climate and biodiversity threat. Anyhow,
that's not the only thing that's happening in Southland. Gee,
it's all on It's high noon at the ok Corral.
(04:49):
Federated Farmers Southland, Federated Farmers, you're involved with them. You're
wanting people who are shooting ducks in Southland this season
to buy their license from another region. You guys are
literally at war with fishing game in Southland.
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Yeah, unfortunately we are, Jamie. Nobody ever wanted to get
this far as what it's got. But unfortunately for an
organization that relies heavily on the goodwill of farmers to
access land for both hunting and or game birder and fishing,
they seem to be very very good at putting in
roadblocks to make their lives very difficult with really unrealistic
(05:27):
and costly legislation which is just holding up a lot
of processes for everybody. So yeah, we're sort of just
encouraging people not to share legally, I still want you
to get a license, but yeah, just make sure we
bite out a region.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
Jason Herrick, who's the president of Federated Farmers down in Southland,
saying go and buy your license from Hawke's Bay or
Greater Wellington. She's a sad old day when Wellington is
more farmer friendly than Southland.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
Yeah, it is. Unfortunately, this we as you got going
on the fishing game seems to be just isolated to
any of the word too. So I know there's still
a lot of really good relationships out there with the
rest of the country.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Also, you've got a bit of an issue with fish
and game over duck population in South lond At the moment,
they've had a magnificent breeding season, but the problem is
that the crops are being decimated by ducks.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
Yeah, there's been a good breeding season. Obviously there's a
lot of water around early on in the spring, but yeah,
there's been a fair bit of crop damage, especially in
brescas that are close to sort of some of these
awesome wheatlands and protected streams at the farmers that we've
been fencing off and creating. So yeah, there's been a
bit of damage going around, so we just, yeah, we'd
(06:36):
like to get some sort of exemption so there can
just guilt to them with the easiest way possible, with
some lead applied to high velocity, just to make sure
that we can have enough enough when to crop.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Really, that's politically incorrect to say that it's dark hunting,
not duck shooting. Hey, now, I was just looking finally,
I was just looking at your forester menu. And if
you're a bit short on money, and you know, farming
can be a tough gig, and you've only got twelve
carbon credits available to spend at your restaurant, you could
go for the start of the Poverty Porridge, an empty
(07:06):
bowl of local produce from Heartland, New Zealand, including empty schools,
sports clubs, and abandoned towns. Dean Ravage. Congratulations, this is very,
very clever. It will be on our Facebook page. Looking
forward to some of the great feedback you're going to
get from your new restaurant.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
No thanks, very much. Jamie appreciate it
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!