Voice for primary industries, rural communities for nearly 60 years

Otago Daily Times

4 days ago

A Gore-born farmer, lobbyist and ex-politician was surprised to win an award recently after only putting forward a nomination in the hope it would raise his profile.
At the Primary Industries New Zealand Awards in Christchurch last month, Eric Roy won the outstanding contribution to primary industries award.
As chairman of NZ Pork, a councillor for Environment Southland and on various advisory panels, Mr Roy said he thought it might be a good idea for his profile to put his hat in the ring.
It still came as a surprise however, when he realised, he might be winning on the night.
"I was sitting there ... and I thought, why are five of my senior staff and three of my fellow directors here at our table?"
"I need to cobble a few thoughts together."
When The Ensign spoke to him a week later he had already had a productive morning, helping his farm manager in Te Anau.
Past retirement age, the six-term MP shows no signs of slowing down.
"I can't help myself," he said.
"People say, when are you going to retire? And I say, when I'm old, I'm only 77."
The awards judging panel said Mr Roy was a voice for primary industries and rural communities, for nearly 60 years.
When asked what problems were facing farmers and rural communities today, politically and financially, he listed three things.
In no particular order, he cited the dwindling numbers of farmers, the politics of the environment and the controversy of genetic modification as key problems. The succession model of owners handing down their farms to their children, as his had done, was no longer working.
"Some figures that were given at the Primary Industry Conference were like about 40% of current farmers are over 65," he said.
"I can't remember the exact figure, but it was just saying hang on, we need to recruit some more people into the industry."
He also said climate change had become a "non-tariff barrier against farmers".
He said countries in Europe had set the standards for climate action in a way that was tilted against countries like New Zealand.
His final point was that it was needed next to decide what was happening with genetic engineering, as it was used freely for such things as medical research and the production of insulin for diabetics. Yet genetic engineering was frowned upon when it came to enhancing farming in areas like pest-control, creating drought-resistant grasses and products that reduced methane gas in ruminant animals, he said.
"There's a very noisy group of people saying we can't do this in agriculture."
He said as chairman of NZ Pork it had been trying to get a new welfare code for four "torturous" years.
With new space and farrowing rules, he hoped to have the new code finalised in a couple of months.
That was why he was happy to be nominated for the outstanding contribution award, to give him more credibility when ringing up a government minister or presenting submissions on these issues.
"That was probably the driver."
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