The Country 21/08/25: Graeme Williams talks to Jamie Mackay

An East Coast farmer and Bush Poet has put pen to paper as he laments the loss of food producing land to carbon farming. His offering is called “Carbon Cuddlers”.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I haven't caught up with this bloke for a while,

(00:01):
and I'm really looking forward to enjoying his company, if
such a thing as possible, at the Gisbone or the
Poverty Bay amp show in October. Looking forward to getting there,
albeit seven or eight years late. That's another story for
another day. Graham Williams, you're an East Coast farmer and
bush poet and you've written a poem about carbon cuddlers.

(00:22):
I guess the net effect of this poem is that
you're just lamenting that we're losing food producing land to
carbon forestry.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, well that's right, Jamie. You know that it's been
a gripe of mine for a long time, as you
well know, and I think it's really coming to the fore.
And I think what really epitomized it. I was listening
to your show the other day, and you know that
American Lady was the goat farming down at Oxford there,
and that was on Country Calendar, and there was a
lot of people saying, oh, well, you know, that's that's

(00:52):
sort of not what country calendar should be. But I
looked at it completely differently, and what I saw in
that little operation there, to me pitomized everything that's fantastic
about you know, the great place of New Zealand and
the food we're producing, because you know, she had tremendous passion,
as all farmers do. She had a huge commitment to

(01:13):
producing healthy food, to animal welfare, you know, that was
her highest priority. I mean, those goats, they were bloody,
happy animals and fantastic. And the other thing that really
struck home to me was, you know, she said she
looks after those goats twenty four to seven, three hundred
and sixty five days a year. Now, every New Zealand
farmer that's got livestock looks after those animals, you know,

(01:37):
twenty four to seven. And I think I think a
lot of people have to really realize, you know, that
in this country we produce happy food. And I call
it happy food because that Oxford lady to pitomized that
and obviously it was good, Tucker, and people were wanting
to buy it. And the other question that crops up, Jamie,
I think you said on your show the other day

(01:57):
that sixty percent of our New Zealand comes from overseas,
and you've done a hell of a lot more traveling
than I had. Jamie, but you know when you go
overseas and you look at some of the conditions these
intensive farming operations have, and I'll tell you what. None
of those qualities that were exhibited in that country calendar
at Oxford the other night, I know for a fact

(02:21):
are not happening overseas, And that's where our tuck is
coming from. And it's going to get worse and worse
if we put more land, good land into trees. So
that's a guts of where I'm at, Jamie, and I've
sort of summed it up in a bit of a
poem for you. All right, Well shoots, so my poem's
called carbon Cuddlers. Well, I'm not a financial guru, but
the word that's on the street is that the country's

(02:43):
in a hell of a state because food she's far
too expensive to eat. But it is spreadable gold if
in fact it can be found. Shoppers are doing somersaults
at ten bucks for a pound. Mince was poor man's tucker.
Once is the bank, it wouldn't break, But now she's

(03:04):
thirty dollars where once was. Phil at steak Lamb is
up there too, And no one's happier than me for
hitting a person in the wallet. Is how you make
a blind man see. It's called supply and demand. The
concepts tried and true, and I don't think urbanites grasp
it as well as rural people do. Our livelihoods depend

(03:29):
on it, and right now there's a boost for the
khoos in. The carbon forests are coming home to roost.
We won't say that we told you so, especially because
we did a perfect recipe for oblivion two point six
million stop units. We have slid save the world with

(03:50):
carbon forests. The wombles they did bleat is bugger all
point and breathing. If you can't afford to eat, if
people reckon prices are high, I predict they'll only climb.
And if people are searching for reasons, then I suggest
it now's the time to be fair. The horse has
bolted as the damage has been done, the leg ups

(04:14):
and incentives and the stories that were spun. Every pastoral
farmer that's sold to carbon trees is another nail in
our coffin from polluters over seas. Limiting our food production
is far from sound advice. The lack of that production,
hence the increase in the price, so a toast to

(04:37):
our remaining farmers is what I wish to do the
best and most efficient in the world, a fact we
know is true. They deserve our total backing and our respect.
They do command. It's them that should reap the rewards
the reality of supply and demand. Don't blame them for

(04:57):
the cost of food. If the price it makes you choke,
blame it on the carbon cuddlers, the ideologists and the woke.
They're away with the bloody fairies, unaccountable and aloof They're
the biggest to lynch when your tucker bull hits the roof.
And that's my take on it, Jamie, and I think
we all need to wake up to the fact that

(05:18):
we're the best producers of the best tucker in the world,
and we need to preserve the production of it. So
that's me, Graham Williams.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Lovely work. Looking forward to catching up with you at
the Poverty and p Show, the best little am P
show in the country mid October.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
Good on you, Jamie, We'll see you then.