September 9, 2025 • 7 mins
North Otago farmer and award-winning environmentalist talks about “the fascinating arms race” between David Seymour and Winston Peters to claim who thought of getting out of the Paris Agreement first. We also discuss things getting dry down on the farm and why Ingrid Smith is a great face for New Zealand farming.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
She has an North Otago farmer, former winner of the
Balance Farm Environment Awards. Her name as Jane Smith. Jane Today,
you want to talk, amongst other things, about the rush
to come out of the climate change closet, the fascinating
arms race as you put it between Seymour and Winston
to claim who thought of getting out of Paris first.
They're both on side with that one. Do you reckon
(00:21):
it's going to put a bit of pressure on Christopher Luxen.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh, good afternoon, Jamien. One hundred percent, of course it is.
And actually, you know, it's been fascinating to see the
House of climate change hysteria cards falling, and you know,
and Paris has always been a trojan horse for that,
and it's really interesting for quite some time those of
us that have spoken up against against Paris and in
terms of what it was going to not only cost
(00:45):
the country and money in terms of five hundred and
fifty billion dollars, but in terms of opportunity cost of
real environmental initiatives. So it's been really interesting now to
watch this arms race between politicians to show who thought
of at first. And you know, it's really interesting to
also see some other facets of that happening in terms
of the banks, that zero banking alliance essentially collapsing the
(01:08):
Ponzi scheme. So in New Zealand taxpayers having to fund
a bloated group bureaucracy to the tune of nearly a
billion dollars on these methane mitigation follies. That taxonomy. We've
talked about that before on the show, in terms of
you know, access to finance. Unless you tip the un box,
you wouldn't be wouldn't be you'd be finding that difficult
to do. You know that methane satellites twenty seven million
(01:31):
dollars lost somewhere and that was only ever paid for
by New Zealand taxpayers to find they're all in guests
missions in North America in terms of methane emissions. And
you know, we've been too distracted by Paris, Jamie. And
at the same time, food, fuel and energy costs are
going through the roof, and even more so if we
carry on this trajectory, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Jane, do we leave Paris or do we try and
renegotiate a deal or are we simply a pimple on
the backside of the rest of the world.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's really interesting, Jamie. Though we often talk we could
talk about ourselves as a leader and we need to
be innovative. The rest of the world's looking at us,
and then we turn into you know, the sort of
anemic sort of taking an anemic position on something like Paris.
And actually, while the Paris Agreement is legally binding in itself,
countries socided on their own MDC, so that's nationally determined
(02:20):
contributions and so those aren't legally binding. But for some
bizarre reason, we painted ourselves into this, you know, punishing
food production corner instead of actually forging our own pathway.
So yeah, we need to actually, at the very least
amend it. And it's been fascinating over the last few
days actually Owen Jennings and myself wearing my methane science
(02:41):
called hat and also my Global Farm around table hat,
we've had some great discussions with the World Sustainable Livestock
Association around the urgency of actually changing the way room
in methane is looked upon in the Paris Accord. And
you know that's desirable not just from a cost and
a science point of view, but actually just for global feuds,
foods security, Jamie and so we're going to be working
(03:02):
really hard on that, and just like the Hewoka econited debate,
but on a much bigger scale. I mean, politicians and
our farming leaders can either join us on that or
we're just going to forge on ahead and make a
difference Jamie. And so that's all of those you know,
farmers are involved in that, and the likes of the
ground spell guys and methane science accord, et cetera. So
to have some alliance globally on that is really great,
(03:25):
and that's what we've been looking for for some time.
So onwards and upwards. And I'm really really excited that.
The other thing is it means that that we're actually
focused back on our naturally pasture raised production instead of
this ridiculous pathway of methane boluses and vaccines and feed editives.
Because again, what we should be most scared of is
(03:45):
losing our naturally raised status Jamie, more than anything, not
whether the Paris Agreement sits behind that or not. Jamie.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Let's go to the cold face on the North Otago farm.
You're getting a bit dry. You've hardly had any rain
over winter, which is often when you replenish because it
could be with Larninia. If Larninia's coming, that you could
get a dry summer on the east coast of both islands.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, we certainly could, Jamiene. I mean, things are looking good,
and stock are certainly very healthy going into Lemming, and
Lemming's about to start again on most of the hills
around here in the next sort of two to three weeks.
But I think we're on our tenth day of a
Norwista today. And you know this statistically proven that the
divorce rate increases during the Norweista. So this morning on
the farm, while I've been working with Blear, I've had
(04:30):
the solicitor on speed dial. But the great thing is
actually about the norwesta Jamie, as I've learned to stand
upwind from Blear and then I cannot hear what he's
yelling at me. I can only just see his his
body language and his sign language, and neither of them
were very good, Jamie. But again, we are tending to
get quite dry. We've had pretty much. I think we've
(04:51):
only had eighteen miles since the end of June, of
which we've got a lot of rain then, so we're
looking forward to the next shower. Jamie, there is some
of the forecast in the next couple of weeks, but yeah,
we'll certainly be looking out for that.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Just a final comment from you on another Smith, not
Jane Smith, that's you Ingrid Smith. You listened to her
earlier in the week on the Country and like a
lot of people, you were most impressed. She's a very
impressive woman. They're a very impressive family, and you were
vicariously claiming a connection with the Smith family because you've
got Roland Smith's hand piece.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, it's a bit of a long boats to all that,
wasn't it, Jamie. I think it was just one of
the ones that he none of the many that he
would have won in a competition, ended up buying it. Knew,
but I certainly don't do it that much justice the
way that I use it in my very rough and
very slow crutching technique. But yeah, Ingrid is amazing. I've
followed her on social media for quite some time and
I actually never realized until the other day when you
(05:45):
had her on here that she was married to Roland.
And you know, she's classy, she's hard working, she's everything
that's you know, I guess rural people are, and you know,
unlike myself, Jamie, she actually looks because she weas lipstick
and looks good out in the farm, whereas I look,
I come something more like one of the top twins
after a hard night out, but no offense. The top
(06:06):
ones love them dearly, but you know, like I just
find her you're fascinating. And again, all of these connections
that are made on social media, and there's so many
examples of that, are really connecting urban people and global
people with what's happening on the farm. And you know,
things that we think are very every day and very
mundane people find fascinating Jamie. And again that's the connection
(06:28):
with food and connecting people back to the rural grassroots
of farming. And I think that's really important. So thank
you to Ingrid. And I think she would probably be
a really good replacement for me on the Farming Show, Jamie.
I think she's a much more dynamic than old smash
a Smith.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
They get what the times were called the country these days, Jane.
That shows you how long you've been on the show.
Maybe I could have a miss or I was going
a mister and Missus Smith panel. That would be one idea.
Or I could have Jane and Ingrid not the top
twins the Smith twins anyhow, Jane, look, I hope you
get some rain on your North Otago farm. Thanks as
always for your time.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Thanks Jamie
She has an North Otago farmer, former winner of the
Balance Farm Environment Awards. Her name as Jane Smith. Jane Today,
you want to talk, amongst other things, about the rush
to come out of the climate change closet, the fascinating
arms race as you put it between Seymour and Winston
to claim who thought of getting out of Paris first.
They're both on side with that one. Do you reckon
(00:21):
it's going to put a bit of pressure on Christopher Luxen.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Oh, good afternoon, Jamien. One hundred percent, of course it is.
And actually, you know, it's been fascinating to see the
House of climate change hysteria cards falling, and you know,
and Paris has always been a trojan horse for that,
and it's really interesting for quite some time those of
us that have spoken up against against Paris and in
terms of what it was going to not only cost
(00:45):
the country and money in terms of five hundred and
fifty billion dollars, but in terms of opportunity cost of
real environmental initiatives. So it's been really interesting now to
watch this arms race between politicians to show who thought
of at first. And you know, it's really interesting to
also see some other facets of that happening in terms
of the banks, that zero banking alliance essentially collapsing the
(01:08):
Ponzi scheme. So in New Zealand taxpayers having to fund
a bloated group bureaucracy to the tune of nearly a
billion dollars on these methane mitigation follies. That taxonomy. We've
talked about that before on the show, in terms of
you know, access to finance. Unless you tip the un box,
you wouldn't be wouldn't be you'd be finding that difficult
to do. You know that methane satellites twenty seven million
(01:31):
dollars lost somewhere and that was only ever paid for
by New Zealand taxpayers to find they're all in guests
missions in North America in terms of methane emissions. And
you know, we've been too distracted by Paris, Jamie. And
at the same time, food, fuel and energy costs are
going through the roof, and even more so if we
carry on this trajectory, Jamie.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Jane, do we leave Paris or do we try and
renegotiate a deal or are we simply a pimple on
the backside of the rest of the world.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
It's really interesting, Jamie. Though we often talk we could
talk about ourselves as a leader and we need to
be innovative. The rest of the world's looking at us,
and then we turn into you know, the sort of
anemic sort of taking an anemic position on something like Paris.
And actually, while the Paris Agreement is legally binding in itself,
countries socided on their own MDC, so that's nationally determined
(02:20):
contributions and so those aren't legally binding. But for some
bizarre reason, we painted ourselves into this, you know, punishing
food production corner instead of actually forging our own pathway.
So yeah, we need to actually, at the very least
amend it. And it's been fascinating over the last few
days actually Owen Jennings and myself wearing my methane science
(02:41):
called hat and also my Global Farm around table hat,
we've had some great discussions with the World Sustainable Livestock
Association around the urgency of actually changing the way room
in methane is looked upon in the Paris Accord. And
you know that's desirable not just from a cost and
a science point of view, but actually just for global feuds,
foods security, Jamie and so we're going to be working
(03:02):
really hard on that, and just like the Hewoka econited debate,
but on a much bigger scale. I mean, politicians and
our farming leaders can either join us on that or
we're just going to forge on ahead and make a
difference Jamie. And so that's all of those you know,
farmers are involved in that, and the likes of the
ground spell guys and methane science accord, et cetera. So
to have some alliance globally on that is really great,
(03:25):
and that's what we've been looking for for some time.
So onwards and upwards. And I'm really really excited that.
The other thing is it means that that we're actually
focused back on our naturally pasture raised production instead of
this ridiculous pathway of methane boluses and vaccines and feed editives.
Because again, what we should be most scared of is
(03:45):
losing our naturally raised status Jamie, more than anything, not
whether the Paris Agreement sits behind that or not. Jamie.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Let's go to the cold face on the North Otago farm.
You're getting a bit dry. You've hardly had any rain
over winter, which is often when you replenish because it
could be with Larninia. If Larninia's coming, that you could
get a dry summer on the east coast of both islands.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yeah, we certainly could, Jamiene. I mean, things are looking good,
and stock are certainly very healthy going into Lemming, and
Lemming's about to start again on most of the hills
around here in the next sort of two to three weeks.
But I think we're on our tenth day of a
Norwista today. And you know this statistically proven that the
divorce rate increases during the Norweista. So this morning on
the farm, while I've been working with Blear, I've had
(04:30):
the solicitor on speed dial. But the great thing is
actually about the norwesta Jamie, as I've learned to stand
upwind from Blear and then I cannot hear what he's
yelling at me. I can only just see his his
body language and his sign language, and neither of them
were very good, Jamie. But again, we are tending to
get quite dry. We've had pretty much. I think we've
(04:51):
only had eighteen miles since the end of June, of
which we've got a lot of rain then, so we're
looking forward to the next shower. Jamie, there is some
of the forecast in the next couple of weeks, but yeah,
we'll certainly be looking out for that.
Speaker 1 (05:02):
Just a final comment from you on another Smith, not
Jane Smith, that's you Ingrid Smith. You listened to her
earlier in the week on the Country and like a
lot of people, you were most impressed. She's a very
impressive woman. They're a very impressive family, and you were
vicariously claiming a connection with the Smith family because you've
got Roland Smith's hand piece.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, it's a bit of a long boats to all that,
wasn't it, Jamie. I think it was just one of
the ones that he none of the many that he
would have won in a competition, ended up buying it. Knew,
but I certainly don't do it that much justice the
way that I use it in my very rough and
very slow crutching technique. But yeah, Ingrid is amazing. I've
followed her on social media for quite some time and
I actually never realized until the other day when you
(05:45):
had her on here that she was married to Roland.
And you know, she's classy, she's hard working, she's everything
that's you know, I guess rural people are, and you know,
unlike myself, Jamie, she actually looks because she weas lipstick
and looks good out in the farm, whereas I look,
I come something more like one of the top twins
after a hard night out, but no offense. The top
(06:06):
ones love them dearly, but you know, like I just
find her you're fascinating. And again, all of these connections
that are made on social media, and there's so many
examples of that, are really connecting urban people and global
people with what's happening on the farm. And you know,
things that we think are very every day and very
mundane people find fascinating Jamie. And again that's the connection
(06:28):
with food and connecting people back to the rural grassroots
of farming. And I think that's really important. So thank
you to Ingrid. And I think she would probably be
a really good replacement for me on the Farming Show, Jamie.
I think she's a much more dynamic than old smash
a Smith.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
They get what the times were called the country these days, Jane.
That shows you how long you've been on the show.
Maybe I could have a miss or I was going
a mister and Missus Smith panel. That would be one idea.
Or I could have Jane and Ingrid not the top
twins the Smith twins anyhow, Jane, look, I hope you
get some rain on your North Otago farm. Thanks as
always for your time.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Thanks Jamie
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