June 25, 2025 • 8 mins
Winner of the pinnacle Outstanding Contribution Award at the PINZ Awards, NZPork chairman Eric Roy has been recognised for 60 years of service to the ag industry.
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):
But the man of the moment my old mate from
south and we go back a long way, Eric, more
than thirty years. I was so pleased and proud for
you to win that award last night, and you were
quite emotional, you were almost close to tears.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well about tears. I things got a wee bit emotional
there when I started to think about the contribution the
family that never get recognized, allowing me to do what
I wanted to do or felt I should do. So
it was good to have an opportunity to be able
to acknowledge them.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
So you been a farmer or raised on a farm,
farm boy all your life, but your contribution to agriculture
started way back in nineteen sixty seven. You must have
been just a pup then, have just just left school.
You went over to do voluntary work in Vanuatu.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, teach them how to find well it was called
new hebrides then. So it does go back a weee
weigh and yeah, no, I was pretty agitated, shall we say,
or concerned about where the world was going at that time.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And of course nineteen six.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, yeah, but you know when I left school, which
was sixty five of the two hundred and six countries
in the world. I read somewhere that only thirty were
true democracies and the rest were going to to totalitarianism. So, well,
what can I do? And about that time, I heard
Bobby Kennedy say service to others as the rent that
(01:21):
we pay for our space on Earth. Very good quote
I still use today, And so that's what kind of
stimulated me. And I went over there, and that was
quite a cool experience and opened my eyes to think
a bit more about a whole lot of things that
I learned about coconuts and cocoa and things I had
no idea about.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
And well, you haven't got too many coconuts or cocoa
in the South. And of course that was nineteen sixty
seven Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, sixty eighty, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Right, So there it was into young farmers, because we're
going to go through your career. It's a good story.
We won't talk about your rugby career. But so then
you go to young farmers and you kind of served
or competed at all at every level.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, well, into debating and public speaking and stock judging
and young farmer all of those things that they were.
They were an essential part of sort of learning more.
And if you go back to the origins of Young Farmers,
where you know Ac Cameron wanted to get young farmers
to have more than contamination learning from the appearance and
(02:29):
you know Young Farmers was a great institution then and
is now. It's come to a sort of renaissance period
now and it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
And next week we've got the FMG Young Farmer Grand
Final and our home patches in Iamond dantin these days
in the Cargo Southland.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yep, and looking forward to that and it's a great
shop window for just selling excellence and I think it's great.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Well, we've got a couple of Young Farmers of the
Air to wrap the show today in twenty twenty two
and twenty twenty three, Tim Dangel, Amber Paul Gee. They're
the dynamic new leadership. We're going to talk to a
young dynamic leader And just a tick. You were runner
up in the Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final
in nineteen seventy five and last night when you got
your presentation, I said, who was the bugger who beat you?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, Paul Charman from Darfield. Now I was well beaten,
but it was a great experience. It was more of
a well, there was no practical then, and once I
got involved with the Scallop Young Farmi of the Year organizing,
we introduced practical and it's grown into the competition it
is today.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Isn't it fantastic that a woman, namely Emma Paul can
win it and compete on an even keel in the
practical Well.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
We waiting for that to happen for a long time,
and I think the first woman to make the finalist
Denise Brown, back about nineteen eighty two or three or thereabouts,
and so really great that that happened, and it broke
a glass ceiling.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, you became the national president of Young Farmers, later
became the World President of Young Farmers. But I'm going
to far forward now because you're a farmer and amongst
all this as well, but I want to fast forward
to your parliamentary career.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, okay, Well, I guess coming out of the Eggsag
in the nineties, I was pretty disenchanted with farming, and
I'd stood for the meat board and done a few things.
But what I really think, well, let's go to the
face where decisions are made. And so I went in.
I want to be the Minister of Agriculture make some
(04:26):
changes that never happened, but you certainly have an influence
in there and cheering the egg Caucus and the Primary
Production Select Committee and a few jobs like that. But
I got sort of shuffled into being a weapon, then
into assistant speaker and then ebudy speaker and you kind
of serve where you've got a skill set. And young
farmers taught me how to cheer meetings, Absolutely no doubt
about that.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
And you're a bit of a stickler for standing order.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I am, yeah, yep. And everything you do is on precing.
If you let something go, someone else will and we've
actually seen that in Parliament.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Now do you reckon the current speaker? This is getting
off script and yeah, please feel free to go there.
But is Jerry brownly handling it as well as he could?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Well, he's kind of put stuff back in the bag
that Trevor Mallard lead out of the bag.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Who's let's be honest, he's the worst speaker we've ever
had on this.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well in my lifetime anyway, Yeah, I think so. And
nurse feeding babies in the chair and being inclusive and
all that, and the change address all of that stuff
has just been you know, a widge of just moving
the standards to where we are today. And that's why
you said I was a stickler. I just think you
set your standard and you hold them and everything else
(05:34):
eminates from.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Whinston instead, right, don't start me on the cowboy hats
and the colonial anyhow. So six terms as an MP
originally for our then from the cargo when they're all combined,
and a bit of ill health in the end probably
changed her mind about retiring, did it.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Oh? I know that the ill health was non hodgkinslim
Home in ninety ninety seven, and that's probably what upset
my sort of true into the minister of a Yeah,
well that sort of thing. And then there was changing
the leadership at the top, and no one knew how
brilliant I was. So and now I had that bit
of a fight on my hands for about a year,
(06:13):
and yeah, got that behind me. So carried on. One
of the things people say, why are you're still going now?
I'm actually in my second life. I was supposed to
die when I was forty nine arm and I'm just
in my twenties again.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Now do you mind me letting this fact out you're
seventy seven on Friday. That makes you almost as old
as Winston. He's still going.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Strong well and Trump he's two years older as well.
Don't compare me to drop.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Okay, just a final one, because this is an award,
an accolade for sixty years of service to New Zealand egg.
It was the pinnacle award these days. I mean you're
you're still in there. You're the chair of n Z pork.
Not bad for a broken down Southland sheep farmer.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, well you go back to say, you know, what
did I know about coconuts? And well, I mean I
got interested in pork because hang on, what place of
Monogastric Scott in the future of New Zealand farming. Here's
an opportunity to learn a new skill. And when Damien
O'Connor rang me out and said, hey, I've got a
job for you, interesting call from the other side of
the house. Yep, I need someone that can sort of
(07:18):
bring this thing together and I need to learn about this.
And we never stopped learning, either going forward or going back.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
And just a final comment, we need to stop importing
what is at sixty percent of Yeah, well criminal, So
when you go in there to buy your bacon. It
might be a bit cheaper, but look for New Zealand made.
Mind you, it might be come from overseas and have
a New Zealand. Yeah, that's a challenge.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's an ongoing argument. And I took the rigs to
this Regulation Review Select Committee and they're under review again.
It's an ongoing challenge.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Good hey your at Croy. Congratulations. I was so proud
of you last night. An old mate winning the Outstanding
Contribution Award at the Primary Industry New Zealand Awards last night.
But the man of the moment my old mate from
south and we go back a long way, Eric, more
than thirty years. I was so pleased and proud for
you to win that award last night, and you were
quite emotional, you were almost close to tears.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well about tears. I things got a wee bit emotional
there when I started to think about the contribution the
family that never get recognized, allowing me to do what
I wanted to do or felt I should do. So
it was good to have an opportunity to be able
to acknowledge them.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
So you been a farmer or raised on a farm,
farm boy all your life, but your contribution to agriculture
started way back in nineteen sixty seven. You must have
been just a pup then, have just just left school.
You went over to do voluntary work in Vanuatu.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, teach them how to find well it was called
new hebrides then. So it does go back a weee
weigh and yeah, no, I was pretty agitated, shall we say,
or concerned about where the world was going at that time.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
And of course nineteen six.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Well, yeah, but you know when I left school, which
was sixty five of the two hundred and six countries
in the world. I read somewhere that only thirty were
true democracies and the rest were going to to totalitarianism. So, well,
what can I do? And about that time, I heard
Bobby Kennedy say service to others as the rent that
(01:21):
we pay for our space on Earth. Very good quote
I still use today, And so that's what kind of
stimulated me. And I went over there, and that was
quite a cool experience and opened my eyes to think
a bit more about a whole lot of things that
I learned about coconuts and cocoa and things I had
no idea about.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
And well, you haven't got too many coconuts or cocoa
in the South. And of course that was nineteen sixty
seven Bobby Kennedy was assassinated.
Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yeah, sixty eighty, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Right, So there it was into young farmers, because we're
going to go through your career. It's a good story.
We won't talk about your rugby career. But so then
you go to young farmers and you kind of served
or competed at all at every level.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, well, into debating and public speaking and stock judging
and young farmer all of those things that they were.
They were an essential part of sort of learning more.
And if you go back to the origins of Young Farmers,
where you know Ac Cameron wanted to get young farmers
to have more than contamination learning from the appearance and
(02:29):
you know Young Farmers was a great institution then and
is now. It's come to a sort of renaissance period
now and it's really cool.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
And next week we've got the FMG Young Farmer Grand
Final and our home patches in Iamond dantin these days
in the Cargo Southland.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yep, and looking forward to that and it's a great
shop window for just selling excellence and I think it's great.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
Well, we've got a couple of Young Farmers of the
Air to wrap the show today in twenty twenty two
and twenty twenty three, Tim Dangel, Amber Paul Gee. They're
the dynamic new leadership. We're going to talk to a
young dynamic leader And just a tick. You were runner
up in the Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final
in nineteen seventy five and last night when you got
your presentation, I said, who was the bugger who beat you?
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, Paul Charman from Darfield. Now I was well beaten,
but it was a great experience. It was more of
a well, there was no practical then, and once I
got involved with the Scallop Young Farmi of the Year organizing,
we introduced practical and it's grown into the competition it
is today.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Isn't it fantastic that a woman, namely Emma Paul can
win it and compete on an even keel in the
practical Well.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
We waiting for that to happen for a long time,
and I think the first woman to make the finalist
Denise Brown, back about nineteen eighty two or three or thereabouts,
and so really great that that happened, and it broke
a glass ceiling.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Well, you became the national president of Young Farmers, later
became the World President of Young Farmers. But I'm going
to far forward now because you're a farmer and amongst
all this as well, but I want to fast forward
to your parliamentary career.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Yeah, okay, Well, I guess coming out of the Eggsag
in the nineties, I was pretty disenchanted with farming, and
I'd stood for the meat board and done a few things.
But what I really think, well, let's go to the
face where decisions are made. And so I went in.
I want to be the Minister of Agriculture make some
(04:26):
changes that never happened, but you certainly have an influence
in there and cheering the egg Caucus and the Primary
Production Select Committee and a few jobs like that. But
I got sort of shuffled into being a weapon, then
into assistant speaker and then ebudy speaker and you kind
of serve where you've got a skill set. And young
farmers taught me how to cheer meetings, Absolutely no doubt
about that.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
And you're a bit of a stickler for standing order.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I am, yeah, yep. And everything you do is on precing.
If you let something go, someone else will and we've
actually seen that in Parliament.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Now do you reckon the current speaker? This is getting
off script and yeah, please feel free to go there.
But is Jerry brownly handling it as well as he could?
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Well, he's kind of put stuff back in the bag
that Trevor Mallard lead out of the bag.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Who's let's be honest, he's the worst speaker we've ever
had on this.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Well in my lifetime anyway, Yeah, I think so. And
nurse feeding babies in the chair and being inclusive and
all that, and the change address all of that stuff
has just been you know, a widge of just moving
the standards to where we are today. And that's why
you said I was a stickler. I just think you
set your standard and you hold them and everything else
(05:34):
eminates from.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Whinston instead, right, don't start me on the cowboy hats
and the colonial anyhow. So six terms as an MP
originally for our then from the cargo when they're all combined,
and a bit of ill health in the end probably
changed her mind about retiring, did it.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Oh? I know that the ill health was non hodgkinslim
Home in ninety ninety seven, and that's probably what upset
my sort of true into the minister of a Yeah,
well that sort of thing. And then there was changing
the leadership at the top, and no one knew how
brilliant I was. So and now I had that bit
of a fight on my hands for about a year,
(06:13):
and yeah, got that behind me. So carried on. One
of the things people say, why are you're still going now?
I'm actually in my second life. I was supposed to
die when I was forty nine arm and I'm just
in my twenties again.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Now do you mind me letting this fact out you're
seventy seven on Friday. That makes you almost as old
as Winston. He's still going.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Strong well and Trump he's two years older as well.
Don't compare me to drop.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Okay, just a final one, because this is an award,
an accolade for sixty years of service to New Zealand egg.
It was the pinnacle award these days. I mean you're
you're still in there. You're the chair of n Z pork.
Not bad for a broken down Southland sheep farmer.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Yeah, well you go back to say, you know, what
did I know about coconuts? And well, I mean I
got interested in pork because hang on, what place of
Monogastric Scott in the future of New Zealand farming. Here's
an opportunity to learn a new skill. And when Damien
O'Connor rang me out and said, hey, I've got a
job for you, interesting call from the other side of
the house. Yep, I need someone that can sort of
(07:18):
bring this thing together and I need to learn about this.
And we never stopped learning, either going forward or going back.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
And just a final comment, we need to stop importing
what is at sixty percent of Yeah, well criminal, So
when you go in there to buy your bacon. It
might be a bit cheaper, but look for New Zealand made.
Mind you, it might be come from overseas and have
a New Zealand. Yeah, that's a challenge.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
That's an ongoing argument. And I took the rigs to
this Regulation Review Select Committee and they're under review again.
It's an ongoing challenge.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
Good hey your at Croy. Congratulations. I was so proud
of you last night. An old mate winning the Outstanding
Contribution Award at the Primary Industry New Zealand Awards last night.
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
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!