Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for entertaining us.
Mine is more of a philosophy, but I do agree with Geri on many of his comments.
First of all, it's amazing when you drive down the streets of Ontario these days and you see farmers out spreading manure with the back feeder basically broken out of their manure spreader. With an aging set of equipment, the farmers are unable to renew that equipment, and the first thing you know, all they're doing is dumping the manure on the land and not having the ability to replace the equipment.
Barns are in disrepair. Some of them are empty. We do see large new operations--shining, gleaming tractors, but it comes at an expense, and that expense is mostly borne by the banks, owed to the banks of Ontario and Canada, in that situation, unfortunately.
Cities across Canada are developed on the most productive topsoil in Canada. They are expanding, taking up a lot of the land that's highly valuable, pushing the topsoil into piles, and paving it over with a monoculture called houses or industrial parks.
Canadian farmers, on the other hand, create quality food, clean drinking water, and breathable air. The aspects of a healthy life are all a result of Canadian farming. Canadian farmers are your source of quality food, free from drugs and pesticides that are illegal in Canada. Canadian farmers produce food where regulations and good farming practices result in a trust that what you eat or feed your pet won't kill you or your pet. Canadian farmers are your source of naturally clean drinking water, without the costs of expensive mechanical machines that require sometimes erroneous human intervention. Canadian farmers have put natural systems in place to help mother nature create or keep water consumable from a ground source.
What about quality air? It's necessary for life. By growing crops and protecting forests and farmland, farmers all across Canada are creating and sustaining quality air. Carbon sequestering done by crops and forests is an important aspect of clean air.
Farmers need to be compensated for any benefit to the public good that comes from creating a habitat for wild animals, birds, and reptiles, even your species at risk.
Canadian farmers should be part of the solution to clean air, through carbon sequestering--in other words, taxing polluters and compensating green initiatives. Support from the government for green fuels for agricultural products, like corn and ethanol, would be a good initiative.
Consumers must commit to buying local produce for their own health and the health of the local and national economy. Health Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada need to work together to show the benefits for a healthy food, air, and water policy for Canadians.
Canada must have a Canadian safe food policy in place, using and showing the benefits of Canadian produce.
Stop imports of food that don't meet Canadian standards. Canada should not purchase food from countries where labour does not meet our standards. The subsidies paid to farmers in other countries is putting Canadian farmers at a great disadvantage and creating poverty throughout the world.
The following, which I've printed out for you, is a news article pertaining to a session I held recently in Brantford with commodity leaders from that vicinity. I'll just leave it for you to read through. That's from local farmers in the Brant county area here in Ontario.
Thank you.