May 14, 2025 • 7 mins
One of our leading farming academics chips in on methane and the Paris Accord. Plus, she tells us why ducks are such a pest.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
She is one of our leading primary sector academics. Fortnightly,
she writes an excellent column for us on our website
The Country dot co dot nz really good one this
week Everything you wanted to know about ducks But we're
afraid to ask doctor Jaqueline Roweth. But before we get
onto your column, I want to ask you about methane
and Paris, two of the buzz subjects at the moment.
(00:23):
We've had Joe Luxton on the show, and she seems
slightly confused about it, as a lot of us are.
To be fair, let's start with methane. If we measure
methane emissions using GWP star, are our problems over No.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
In the short The ipcc I think report on that,
saying you could use GWP staff for short lived gases.
It would because the GWP overestimates impact in the long
term but underestimates in the short term, so we would
have a short term issue and shortdown life two decades
(01:01):
of appearing to be increasing in impact, and that's not
what we want. But of course what Joe is concerned
about is our trade deals, all of which rely on
saying we are doing everything we can to reduce greenhouse gases,
and I'm still very strongly of the opinion that we
do everything we can. Whilst saying the next step is
(01:22):
decrease food production, is that really what you want, because
of course decreased food production will increase prices of the
food and no government wants that.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
But if we have less ruminance in the country today
than we had yesterday over any given period of time,
that must have a nit calling effect methane out.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
It's not increasing the temperature as fast. Remember, although we
keep saying, oh, half the impact is a greenhouse gases
as coming from ruminants. The other half and increasing the
more we bring down our ruminants is from carbon dioxide,
which is a much great problem in terms of staying around.
(02:03):
So I'd tend to avoid anything like the term cooling
because we're just not increasing it at fast as we
would have done if we've got more ruminants. But the
other thing that David Train, because we're often quoting David,
pointed out is that our starting point Miles Allen was
in there as well. Our starting point is crucial. We
had no ruminants in New Zealand before the eighteen hundreds.
(02:26):
What's our starting point at the moment it varies around
the world between twenty seventeen or two thousand and five,
or or do we go back to Kyoso? And all
of these the metrics, the goals, the time frame are
very important in these calculations. So I would come back
to having the high ground, which is we are doing
everything we can. What we have done is use productive
(02:50):
land to forests, which are only a short term solution.
And while we're doing everything we can, we know that
you people in supermarkets do not wish to more for food,
So we're doing everything we can. Our next step is
reducing food production, which is not what the world wants.
So support us in what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Hey, what about Paris and or out?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
We need to be in at the moment.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Absolutely, What about David? What about David Seymour's comment? And
I find this very interesting He says, ultimately the cost
of staying in could be greater than the penalty for
getting out.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, I think we'd lose an awful lot of sanction
of public license if we pulled out, So I don't
think that's a good idea, and we just need to
go on using the Paris Agreement statement that we're doing
everything we can to reduce greenhouse gases without reducing food production.
(03:51):
That is should be asked, what number one stunts without
reducing food production because everybody is concerned about the price
of food.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Let's finish on your column on our website The Country
dot co dot n Z. On ducks, I mean, I
knew they were a piss, but I didn't realize there
was such a big piest to Jaqueline. The numbers around
ducks aren't flesh.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
No, there are a lot of them. They're making our
gray duck. They are endangered in a lot of areas,
particularly in urban places, and everybody we love ducks. They
make fun of a great noise and the ducklings acute,
but they're little bug bombs, and their fecal contamination output
is not just what they're eating, it's what's growing in
(04:34):
their feces, and they have a phenomenally high bacterial loading.
So that's what's doing the worst things in terms of E.
Coli to our rivers. And there's been lots of good
work by ESR looking at where the problems are coming
from in terms of river contamination. And so of course
we need to leave everybody with the message that you
(04:56):
don't swim during or for a couple of days after
heavy rain for all sort of reasons, but one of
them is bacterial loading. But duck loading of EcoLine and
swans and Canada geese for candelabacta, it's there all the time,
just gets worse in big rainfalls.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Do we blame their four beers who were silly enough
to bring in gorse and silly enough to bring in
mallard ducks and rabbits and rabbits, yes, of course, rabbits.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And rabbits, yes, and now we've got wallabies. New Zealand
is unique. We know that, we say it all the time,
but it has very few natural presators for these things
that we've introduced, and we end up with unintended consequences.
And so I'm there are various places saying that actually
the ducks shooting season, if mallards were declared a pest,
(05:45):
they could be destroyed when they arrived, and that actually
needs to be investigated for the safety of our environment
and our own health and our food production because they
are destroying crops.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, I look at some of the sea means from
the likes of Southland earlier in the season when those
ducks were like a plague of locusts on some of
those crops, just awful.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And we've had similar things up in the Waikato. Up
in the High Far North, they talk about not being
able to grow chickery because it's just too delicious, the
paradose that just arrive and take it out. And we
know that the Canada geese around Lake Elsmere, well there's
a lot of bug contamination. So yes, we need to
(06:30):
be logical about what we're actually trying to achieve. And
if the people who want to preserve ducks are prepared
to offset the coft to the ultimate consumer or to
the farmer, that's fine. But I suspect they're not.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Hey, Jack Well, and the geese aren't the only piets
like Ellesmere. Those people with their drones.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Ah, well that too. But was it a bird or
was it a play or was it just spy?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Can Well, it fell from the sky the ultimate solution. Anyhow,
I get myself in trouble if I say anything more,
Doctor Chackwill and Rowe people can read all about ducks
and the damage they're doing to our environment on your
excellent column on our website The Country dot co dot Z.
See you later.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Lovely thanks by
She is one of our leading primary sector academics. Fortnightly,
she writes an excellent column for us on our website
The Country dot co dot nz really good one this
week Everything you wanted to know about ducks But we're
afraid to ask doctor Jaqueline Roweth. But before we get
onto your column, I want to ask you about methane
and Paris, two of the buzz subjects at the moment.
(00:23):
We've had Joe Luxton on the show, and she seems
slightly confused about it, as a lot of us are.
To be fair, let's start with methane. If we measure
methane emissions using GWP star, are our problems over No.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
In the short The ipcc I think report on that,
saying you could use GWP staff for short lived gases.
It would because the GWP overestimates impact in the long
term but underestimates in the short term, so we would
have a short term issue and shortdown life two decades
(01:01):
of appearing to be increasing in impact, and that's not
what we want. But of course what Joe is concerned
about is our trade deals, all of which rely on
saying we are doing everything we can to reduce greenhouse gases,
and I'm still very strongly of the opinion that we
do everything we can. Whilst saying the next step is
(01:22):
decrease food production, is that really what you want, because
of course decreased food production will increase prices of the
food and no government wants that.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
But if we have less ruminance in the country today
than we had yesterday over any given period of time,
that must have a nit calling effect methane out.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
It's not increasing the temperature as fast. Remember, although we
keep saying, oh, half the impact is a greenhouse gases
as coming from ruminants. The other half and increasing the
more we bring down our ruminants is from carbon dioxide,
which is a much great problem in terms of staying around.
(02:03):
So I'd tend to avoid anything like the term cooling
because we're just not increasing it at fast as we
would have done if we've got more ruminants. But the
other thing that David Train, because we're often quoting David,
pointed out is that our starting point Miles Allen was
in there as well. Our starting point is crucial. We
had no ruminants in New Zealand before the eighteen hundreds.
(02:26):
What's our starting point at the moment it varies around
the world between twenty seventeen or two thousand and five,
or or do we go back to Kyoso? And all
of these the metrics, the goals, the time frame are
very important in these calculations. So I would come back
to having the high ground, which is we are doing
everything we can. What we have done is use productive
(02:50):
land to forests, which are only a short term solution.
And while we're doing everything we can, we know that
you people in supermarkets do not wish to more for food,
So we're doing everything we can. Our next step is
reducing food production, which is not what the world wants.
So support us in what we're doing.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Hey, what about Paris and or out?
Speaker 2 (03:13):
We need to be in at the moment.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Absolutely, What about David? What about David Seymour's comment? And
I find this very interesting He says, ultimately the cost
of staying in could be greater than the penalty for
getting out.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Well, I think we'd lose an awful lot of sanction
of public license if we pulled out, So I don't
think that's a good idea, and we just need to
go on using the Paris Agreement statement that we're doing
everything we can to reduce greenhouse gases without reducing food production.
(03:51):
That is should be asked, what number one stunts without
reducing food production because everybody is concerned about the price
of food.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Let's finish on your column on our website The Country
dot co dot n Z. On ducks, I mean, I
knew they were a piss, but I didn't realize there
was such a big piest to Jaqueline. The numbers around
ducks aren't flesh.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
No, there are a lot of them. They're making our
gray duck. They are endangered in a lot of areas,
particularly in urban places, and everybody we love ducks. They
make fun of a great noise and the ducklings acute,
but they're little bug bombs, and their fecal contamination output
is not just what they're eating, it's what's growing in
(04:34):
their feces, and they have a phenomenally high bacterial loading.
So that's what's doing the worst things in terms of E.
Coli to our rivers. And there's been lots of good
work by ESR looking at where the problems are coming
from in terms of river contamination. And so of course
we need to leave everybody with the message that you
(04:56):
don't swim during or for a couple of days after
heavy rain for all sort of reasons, but one of
them is bacterial loading. But duck loading of EcoLine and
swans and Canada geese for candelabacta, it's there all the time,
just gets worse in big rainfalls.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Do we blame their four beers who were silly enough
to bring in gorse and silly enough to bring in
mallard ducks and rabbits and rabbits, yes, of course, rabbits.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
And rabbits, yes, and now we've got wallabies. New Zealand
is unique. We know that, we say it all the time,
but it has very few natural presators for these things
that we've introduced, and we end up with unintended consequences.
And so I'm there are various places saying that actually
the ducks shooting season, if mallards were declared a pest,
(05:45):
they could be destroyed when they arrived, and that actually
needs to be investigated for the safety of our environment
and our own health and our food production because they
are destroying crops.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Well, I look at some of the sea means from
the likes of Southland earlier in the season when those
ducks were like a plague of locusts on some of
those crops, just awful.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
And we've had similar things up in the Waikato. Up
in the High Far North, they talk about not being
able to grow chickery because it's just too delicious, the
paradose that just arrive and take it out. And we
know that the Canada geese around Lake Elsmere, well there's
a lot of bug contamination. So yes, we need to
(06:30):
be logical about what we're actually trying to achieve. And
if the people who want to preserve ducks are prepared
to offset the coft to the ultimate consumer or to
the farmer, that's fine. But I suspect they're not.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Hey, Jack Well, and the geese aren't the only piets
like Ellesmere. Those people with their drones.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Ah, well that too. But was it a bird or
was it a play or was it just spy?
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Can Well, it fell from the sky the ultimate solution. Anyhow,
I get myself in trouble if I say anything more,
Doctor Chackwill and Rowe people can read all about ducks
and the damage they're doing to our environment on your
excellent column on our website The Country dot co dot Z.
See you later.
Speaker 2 (07:13):
Lovely thanks by
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