The Country 15/04/25: Dr Jacqueline Rowarth talks to Rowena Duncum

Leading primary sector academic attended the Waikato Bay of Plenty regional Young Farmer debating finals last night. Plus, she has a new column out, which explores the connection between the ancient agricultural calendar and food.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the country, and doctor Jacqueline Roweth joins
me now primary sector academic and one of my great friends.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Hello Jack, Welcome, Thank you very much, lovely to be
talking to you now.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Last night you were at the WYBOP regional debating finals,
and of course this is young farmers we're talking about.
I competed in this I think in twenty seventeen, got
joint best speaker with a bloke in the other team
who was debating holding onto a bottle of wine and
I wasn't quite sure how to take that.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Jeck. Well, it's all much more serious now and they
take it in a very professional manner, so I can
say I had the similar experience to you, but it
was last century, and having been a young farmer since
nineteen seventy four back in the UK. The way that
they did their arguments and put forward, whether they believed
them or not, what we felt was complete integrity and

(00:51):
the arguments being put forward and had I hold out
great hope for the industry and the fact that these
people can take a debate about the pros and cons
of either side and then move forward. And when I
looked at these young farmers and I looked at my
co judges who are now Federated Farmers Rotarians doing good works.

(01:12):
And we also had their Young Farmer of the Year
winner of nineteen seventy seven, Keith Holmes, who's currently the
Waikato president of Federated Farmers. We're all there cheering them
on and looking forward to them moving through from being
young farmers to Federated Farmers to Rotary. All of us
trying to do good work for the country, not just

(01:36):
the rule sector but the country. And I think there
are some great prospects for the future in those teams
last night, and the fact but all their clubs were
there nodding sagely at the point the teams made and
of course applauding and cheering everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Oh fantastic, it was good.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
It really was a very good occasion.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Oh you must be like a proud mamma Hen does
watch these young ones coming through. That's how I feel.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Yes, I do, yes, I'd think of the students through
the years and now they're doing such good things for
the country. I mean HaMishmar is one of them. Yeah,
there he is being the Special Envoy in Agriculture for
New Zealand. There are just some lovely young people out there,
and of course they are maturing and they continue to

(02:23):
do everything they can to manage the land and help
the economy and produce food row.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yes. Now, speaking of food, you've written an amazing column
for the Country dot co dot nzet exploring the connection
between the ancient agricultural calendar and food.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yes, the whole of the calendar, and there were eight
periods during the year, and we can think of yule Tide,
which some people will call Christmas or Midsummer Day or
indeed Easter, which is actually of Styra. It's first sort
of the quarter point, the equinox of the year, but
the Christian component moves award and boards a bit. But

(03:01):
all of these feasts and the agricultural calendar were celebrating
the likely arrival of new food or using up the
stuff of the old food before it went out well
you know, went off and couldn't be used. And the
issue was if you didn't at the harvest festival, which
might also be called Halloween or Samhig, if you didn't

(03:25):
have enough food, then you were going to die soot.
You just needed enough food to get through the darkade
part of the year when there was no harvest to
be had, and part of the celebrations were thanking the
gods for the fact that you hadn't got the harvest in,

(03:45):
but also warding them off, warding off the evil spirits
from taking what food you had.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
I think, you know, modern celebrations have lost that deeper
meaning of food tied to survival and community. Now we
say Halloween just a way for kids to get candy.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
Well as one might say the fame about Easter and
all those chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs and oh heavens
now there are chocolate hot cross buns, but there's a
direct correlation with Christianity. There were buns were certainly celebrated,
the diester bonds, breads, cakes, but now they have crosses
on them. They bring in the Christianity thing. So from

(04:25):
the agricultural point of view, the thanking of the gods,
whichever god it was, was really important, and there's been
a sort of platting and intermingling of the different beliefs,
and that's great.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
How do we maintain foods cultural significance? Jaqueline with that, well,
while addressing climate change and food security, just moving forward.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yes, there are major challenges and a lot of this
understanding about what's happening with food out there, and the
main thing I think is to be able to celebrate
the feast spaces of family with family and think about
the food we're eating. And of course because it comes
because of refrigeration and treading and those sorts of things,

(05:10):
it's just available at the supermarket and you can make
your choices about price point, but it is available all
the time and just sometimes. And this is the point
of the column, just remembering that actually food hasn't always
been around in terms of the way it is now
and just thanking. And I'd be thanking the farmers who
are out there milking the cars till twice a day

(05:32):
or once, you know, depending on where they are in
the season, because they go on doing their job to
make sure that there is food and indeed work for
New Zealand. But it's still the economy and they're still
doing a great job. So let's give thanks.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Absolutely. It is a wonderful column and we'll be up
on the country dot co dot m Z if you
want to find out more about this, Doctor Jaquelin, A
roath pleasure is always to chat with you. Thanks so
much for your time, thank you, lovely to talk bro,