The Country 16/05/25: Jeremy Rookes talks to Jamie Mackay

Our resident lifestyle/hobby farming correspondent bemoans the state of the nation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We tease the fact that this man was going to
be on the show tomorrow. And first up, I have
to apologize for calling him a pest. Some people call
him a pest, but he's not really. He's always informative
and entertaining on this show our resident lifestyle slash hobby farmer,
Jeremy Rock's former carbon farmer. How many more ways can
I insult you, Jeremy?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, have people off the ease, But I can't repeat that.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
No, no, Well, I mean to be fair. We do
love each other and I do enjoy your input because
you're a bit like Jane Smith, and I know you're
a big fan of Jane Smith. No one ever dies
wondering what you're thinking. Now. This is live radio, my friends,
so please be careful before you're tea off today.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, well, there's not a lot of tea off of
that really, But there have been a couple of things
in the last week that have just absolutely fascinateted me,
like the temerity of ended farming and Groundswelders to survey
all the people that use their website about what they
think about getting out of power us and the methane
and stuff. And then obviously The people affected are the farmers,

(01:05):
and they have voiced their opinion through through that survey,
but they're how dare the people that are being affected
voice their opinion. They've been around housed by you know,
Grant mc national, the National Party, everyone else, going how
dear these people? They're there bloodyes, and it's like, no,
these are these are the people on the ground that
know what's going on. And you've only got to look

(01:26):
at the decrease in all the all the stock units
for a start, they're disappearing at a million miles now,
and so how earth can we even justified being in
the Powers agreement when our clearly our methane emissions are
dropping anyway, just just by the lack of stock.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
It's just nice, yeah, bi attrition. I know you didn't
hear it. But the Dungeons brother and sister, both very
bright young people, former Young Farmers of the Year. Emma
had a differing opinion to Tim. Emma says we've got
to stay in the Powers Accord and she wasn't sure
about methane measurement. Tim was pretty definitive, both of them.
He said, we need to get out of Paris. Not yet,

(02:02):
it's too early. And he said the measuring system for
methaneus fraud. And I would tend to agree with Tim
on this one.

Speaker 2 (02:12):
But I mean, you know the thing i'd ever say,
it's the it's the people above, the producers that make
all these decisions that apparently are in our best interest.
But everything about this climate change nonsense. It's a straw
man argument. I mean, renewables don't work, they break down,
the wind doesn't blow, you know, solar doesn't work on
cloudy days, and then when it does, generate powers too

(02:34):
much for the good to handle. We've got this sort
of the evil of ruminants, where they are natural. You know,
a ruminants animal is a natural biosystem of your like
that's evolved over millions of years, and so why would
you try and muck around with with an animal's natural biology.
I mean, it's just crazy. In the Paris Accord itself

(02:56):
says you cannot affect food production, So I mean there's
a natural out there anyway. We just don't need to
do anything stupid. We just box on, or we get
it and get out of it, or just ignore it. Basically,
it's probably the easiest way, if that makes sense, because
you know clearly the government's well aligned to this Paris

(03:16):
accord and all the stuff. But I just think it's
ridiculous personally. I just can't see how how they can
even prove anything because they can't. They've never got anything,
any facts. They just go to market demands. It will
show us the evidence. Please show us the evidence.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
Let's get a final comment from you on the carbon farming,
and I give you a better stick about being a
carbon farmer. But the factor is you did save your
Central hawks Bay farm. It went to forestry slash carbon farming.
I know new rules or new legislation is coming into
place later this year, but it's not stopping what I
would describe almost as a rampant in some cases blanket

(03:55):
planting of good pastoral and even worse arable land. It's
a crime.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, well it is going full boar at the moment,
Like half a Hawks Bay's gone into and the forestry
between sort of one stead out to a markery in
Central Hawk's Bay. There is a road there now that's
got two farms left on it. When we left three
years ago there was about seven or eight. You know,

(04:23):
it's it's going full board until the rules change in October.
I think it is, which which is a real shame.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Yeah, they need the change. I don't know. I mean
they're fast forwarding the pay equity in the House. You'd
think they could do the same thing with the carbon farming.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
No, I don't know. I mean, don't don't talk about
the House of Parliament. I mean, as Winston Peters said,
I just can't get the head around what's going on
in there. It's a circus. It's like it's like musty
day at school when you look at the greens and
tapati marywalk in there, and then it is like school
because Jerry Brownley, the ex woodwork teacher, couldn't run a
bath by the look of him, you know, as speaker,

(04:56):
he's just letting them get away with murder. It's I
don't know, it's it's a it's quite unbelievable what's going
on in this country at the moment. It's insanity rules.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
I blame Trevor Mallard and that's my final shot. I
blame him for a lot of things. Actually, Jeremy Rook's
well done. Always enjoy your opinion and time here on
the country. Sorry for calling you a pest, That's all right.