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The Muster- Te Radar: We Need To Value Agriculture In Schools · The Muster on Hokonui

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This is the master on Hakanui, Toreda. Andrew Lumsden, of course,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: known to a lot of people as well. He catches
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: up with us. He is the voice, of course, of
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: the FMG Young Farmer of the Year competition, and he's
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: just getting back into his work. The district's starting to
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: crank into gear, then the regionals, and before you know it,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: we'll be back in Christchurch next July for the next
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: edition of it. Good afternoon, Radar. How's things?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Look, absolutely bloody great. I'm currently standing in the beautiful
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Dunedin Botanic Gardens. I've watching the breeze whisper along the
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: core fire flowers, the sound of a tui, there's a
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: couple of gardeners shoveling mulch, and there is nothing I
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: enjoy more than just watching people shovel. I find it
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: very relaxing. So long as they can work a shovel properly.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: That's an essential life skill. Should be taught in schools, actually.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: It could well be part of that kind of excellent
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: agricultural curriculum that's got people up in arms at the
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: moment that we seem to be hell-bent on getting rid of.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Now, you're involved with the Young Farmer movement, like I said,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: and you're seeing all these people coming through the industry
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: with a real passion for what's going on. And surely
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: it starts at secondary school and agriculture should remain a
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: standalone subject.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: Look, absolutely. And I know it's thrown a bit of
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: horticulture in there as well. I remember when I did
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: horticulture in the third form, I think I ended up
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: being the top student because it was a place that
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I'd seen a lot of people who weren't gifted academically.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: Let's put it that way. And to give you an example,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: I think the exam was at a 51 mark, so 2%.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: which were putting your name on the paper. Not everyone
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: got that one right. And I think we've changed a lot.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: And what really, there's so many studies, there's so much
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: research that comes out to say, if you can show
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: students a practical use for all of the other things
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: they're learning, their maths, their science, their reading, within a
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: subject such as agriculture or horticulture, and they can see
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: that all these things have a reason, then they're going
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: to do really well at all of them because they
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: can put it into that structure. And, you know, we've
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: all seen them blather on about the value of the
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: agricultural and the primary sector. And we're better to learn it.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: For those people that don't either don't have access to
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: it themselves, living on a farm, or they want to
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: increase the knowledge that they have, you know, you put
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: it into high school. It's just... You know, it just
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: seems such a no-brainer. Even business skills, learning all the
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: business skills that go along with these kind of things.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: That great world that is the primary sector with its many, many, many,
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: many facets. It's, you know, I don't really understand it.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: You're a mover and shaker, right, in all due respects,
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: in the rural circles. You cruise around New Zealand. You've
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: got a lot to do with urban and rural audiences.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Do you think rural is appreciated well in the urban centres?
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, yeah, you know, look, I'm sure it is,
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: and actually there's a couple of great, um, you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: sort of big urban schools, what is it, uh, Mount Albert,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: they've got, you know, they've got a farm there at
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Mount Albert, um, and we do get a lot of great, uh,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: we do get a lot of great competitors coming through,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: many of them obviously, you know, um, from boarding schools
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: coming back out, but look, I think it is, um,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: and it's like anything, people appreciate the thing that they're, they,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: that they can see and they're involved with all the time, um,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: But I certainly suspect that there are many people appreciating
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: just how much the bloody sheep farmers are being paid
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: at the moment for the meat and wool as the
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: price goes up in the supermarkets. But look, again, you know,
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: there's probably a really good way of getting that whole
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: sense of food. Like, I'm amazed that we don't do more,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: particularly as we're moving into kind of a more of
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: an AI, digital kind of age, on basic kind of
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: life skills at our schools. Because a lot of those
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: traditional schools, you're not going to need them so much.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: Timetables are great, but you can just ask and see
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: what that one's 12 times four. But budgeting, cooking, where
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: food comes from, how to look after yourself, all of
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: these things, because a lot of people do not have
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: the privilege of learning that in their own home for
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: whatever reason. So the world of education is a mystery
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: to me, and I don't know that it's necessarily all
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: going to be solved by an hour of reading, writing,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: and arithmetic.
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: I spoke to a teacher at Southland Girls High School
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: last week, Mal Young, and she said that all the
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: pupils were so engaged in agriculture, like 120 members in
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: the Young Farmers Club alone, which was huge numbers. And
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: everybody refers back to Fielding High School, your favourite town, Fielding,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: by the way.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: I love Fielding.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: You love Fielding.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I do love Fielding. Yes, I do. It's outstanding and
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: it's Fielding. Hey, you know, look, and as I said,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: there's some great stuff overseas. I think the Norwegians are
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: always doing something great all the day and And they
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: would put their curriculum towards an overall project to the
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: year that everything was focused on. And if you've got
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: a big agricultural or horticultural primary sector thing, particularly New
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Year's Six and New Year's Sevens, and you can gear
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: a lot of stuff around that, it just makes sense
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: that people are going to be engaged in it. Maybe
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: there's an issue with the curriculum or what they're teaching.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: Maybe they're saying, look, there's not enough schools doing it. Well,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: that's easy to solve. You try to get some more
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: schools in there. And I'm sure there's no shortage of
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: people that can come out of the sector, you know,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: looking to downsize their lives a little. I'm not saying
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: that you'll downsize by being confronted with 30 unruly, agricultural-loving students.
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: But you know what I mean. There's a lot of
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: expertise out there that could be harnessed to really turn
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: this into something that begins people's journey through that primary sector,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: regardless of whether they end up on the land, peripheral
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: to the land. They could end up in tech or
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: science or biotech or genetics. Look, who knows where they'll
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: end up, but not a single person in the world
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: gets by in a day without eating something, and that
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: is grown by farmers and growers.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, the Young Farmer District Finals are underway, I understand.
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: Look, I believe they are. It's always exciting for me.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: I don't attend those. I just have a look at
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: the results when they come through. They've had a couple.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: I think we've got a couple of former grand finalists
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: who I can't think of off the top of my
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: head who are coming back for another crack at it.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: and there's no shortage of other young people jumping in
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: and getting on that bandwagon to see if they can't become,
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: what are we, season 59, I think, or are we
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: heading to season 60? There's been so many of them.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: But you would remember season 50. It seems like yesterday.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Weren't we in Invercargill for the 50th anniversary, I think?
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Time just travels too quickly, Radar. Honestly, you hit 50
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: and time just goes.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I know. It is one of those things. It's important
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: always to take that little moment just to pause and reflect.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: I'm just, oh, look at that. I'll tell you what
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: I bloody love. It is a little tractor that tows
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: like a train around the gardens. I'm watching the Children's
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Recreational Support Trust little tractor, Bluebell, pootling around the botanic gardens,
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: and I'll tell you what, there's a few tourists sitting
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: on there. I'm a little bit jealous.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: They've got that in Gore. The Gore Lions run it
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: at Hamilton Park. You'd be impressed.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I bloody love a tiny train, a little tractor train.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: What I really love are those ones that go on
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: the tiny train tracks around the place. I will never
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: turn down a rider on one of those. You are
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: never too old.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: It's good to hear, mate. Now, you're going to Oamaru
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: this afternoon. What's the go?
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, I'm heading to Oamaru. They've got an excellent
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: arts festival that's going on. I think last week, this
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: week's coming up. I've got a great little show tonight
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: around kind of music and songs with people. There's only
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: a very intimate crowd. There are only 12 tickets available,
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: and they went pretty much straight away. But Saturday night,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I am doing Kiwi Country, Rural New Zealand, and 100 Objects,
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: the live show of the book of the story. of
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: rural New Zealand told through 100 objects. And I managed
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: to get all 100 into about 70 minutes to tell
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: the story of all those weird and wonderful things, things
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: that you think you know about New Zealand and you
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: might just not, or little stories and anecdotes. And it's
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: just a fun and glorious celebration of both the best
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: and arguably, depending on your point of view with how
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: we approach things, often ineptly the worst of rural New Zealand.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: Good on you, Radar. We'll let you carry on. You
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: enjoy Mighty North Otago. Always appreciate your time.
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: I will. Have a great, great weekend.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Andrew Lumsden, also known as Teradar, the voice of the
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: FMG Young Farmer of the Year competition. Next here on
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: the muster, we're away to Western Australia. Dave Biss, our
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: correspondent over that way. Let's have a regular catch-up.