Yes, it is possible.
Evidence of meeting #14 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was farm.
Evidence of meeting #14 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was farm.
2:15 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
It may be. I listened to Jason. I'm not going to get into the Wheat Board argument, because there's so much misinformation out there on both sides, it's unbelievable.
But why does Canada have to be the boy scouts in the world? Every other country in the world is subsidizing their farm industry, especially the United States. Why do we want to be the boy scouts and go broke because we've been the boy scouts? Do farmers not deserve the dignity of a decent income for producing food to supply not only our own country but the world? Why do we want to be such damn boy scouts?
Does anybody else want to add a solution?
2:15 p.m.
As an Individual
Somehow we have the idea that there's such a thing as free enterprise in the country. Technically, especially for the young guys...I was a young guy also.
I just said in my presentation that International Harvester and the chemical company Viterra are buying each other out. We're saying we're a free enterprise system. There is no such a thing as a free enterprise system. It's a concentration of power between the big boys. The sooner you get that in your mind, the sooner you'll get ahead in your farming. Otherwise you'll go broke.
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Thank you very much.
I'll now move to Mr. Richards for five minutes.
2:15 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Wild Rose, AB
Thank you.
I was so impressed with all your presentations. I can clearly see that if you represent the future of our farmers, then we have a great future. I know we have to work on some things to help the industry survive, but clearly, if you're a representative of future farming, then we're going to be all right. I sure appreciate you all being here to share your expertise, experience, and your passion for your industry.
I heard a lot of really great ideas from this panel today. I won't touch on them all because we're very limited for time, obviously, and I want to allow you some time to answer my questions. Certainly I heard a couple of interesting ideas that I think I probably hadn't heard before.
Barb, you mentioned the idea of limiting programs or subsidies to beginning farmers and tying that to education. As you stated, subsidies do get recapitalized into the farm to help beginning farmers. I don't think anyone on this panel, as far as our young farmers are concerned, want to rely on government programs. I think you all want to rely on your land, your own hard work, your own ingenuity, and your own business sense. You want to see something that'll allow that to happen and be profitable. Certainly I can clearly see the idea of help to get a kick-start and being able to rely on your own business sense, which I know you all have.
Mr. Voldeng, your optimism struck me because you said you saw a great opportunity for you as a young farmer getting into the industry. When you see the average age of farmers increasing, the optimism you have in seeing this as an opportunity is the kind of thing we need to see--the passion and the opportunity you see there. So I sure appreciate that.
As I said, there were so many good ideas I can't go over them all.
What I want to do is very similar to what I've done as we've gone across the country, and that is open it up to all our young farmers. Obviously each one of you will have to be brief because we are limited to a small amount of time here, but could each one of the young farmers briefly share with us on two questions that tie together?
Those of you who have taken over the farm from your parents, or are maybe a third- or fourth-generation farmer, what do you see being the biggest difference in the industry between your parents' or your grandparents' day and your day? What do you see as the one thing that could be done to help make farming profitable, outside of government programs? I'll throw that open.
Maybe I'll start with you, Stuart, and we'll work our way down.
2:20 p.m.
Farmer, As an Individual
The biggest change that I see is the rising cost of production, which has become big business compared to when my dad started. On the flip side, a lot of things haven't changed. My dad worked off the farm for 26 years to pay for it. Now I've been working off the farm for the last 10 years to try to pay for it again. I think it shouldn't be that way. It should be a career where you can go in, work hard, know whatever scale you need to be at, and be comfortable that there's going to be a return at the end of the day.
Agriculture produces food. What is more important than food? We can live without other things, but we can't live without food. So we need to come back and put some value on this product. And it's not just Canada,;it's worldwide.
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
Blake Richards Conservative Wild Rose, AB
You covered it very well.
The idea was the difference between your parent's day, when they were beginning in farming, and what you see is the biggest difference now. Then, what you might see as the one thing that's most important to ensure the survival of the family farm in particular.
2:20 p.m.
As an Individual
I would agree with Stuart. The increase in the cost of production over our lifetime has been outrageous.
Something that strikes me as a very significant difference is the globalized economy we're dealing with now that I think didn't exist in my parent's generation quite as it does today. It puts a lot of pressure on agriculture as an industry, rather than just the everyday ins and outs of a farm.
I also would suggest that farmers have been competing against each other much more than they ever were. In the 1970s, when I was a child and when I was growing up, there was a real sense of community. That still exists to an extent, but there is an overabundance of competition among farmers and a huge lack of competition in all other parts of the industry. That creates a really bad feeling about the future.
2:20 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
Thank you very much.
We'll now move to Mr. Shipley for five minutes.
2:25 p.m.
As an Individual
Are you going down the list? I've got a couple of comments.
2:25 p.m.
As an Individual
I'll start off and just say the biggest difference I've seen is in the economies of size, from where my father started out with a small hog operation that he could run himself to when my brother and I bought him out and we had people helping. We had four employees in the barn. It was 450 sows with 4,000 acres of land, and that was just to make a reasonable income in this day and age. In the sixties and seventies, he would have had the world's biggest farm.
That is making it extremely difficult for young farmers to get in.
I met with my accountant the other day and he said, you should be at 10,000 acres if you're only a grain farm. With economies of scale, you've got a 4,000-acre farm. You've got to start hustling; you've got to start growing if you want to make a good living.
2:25 p.m.
As an Individual
I think you used to be able to just put your head down and work hard and be good at producing grain and you could get by. The management side of the business is the biggest part of it now. Usually you're hiring guys to go out and sit on the tractor seat and you're in the office. So that's a big change.
Another big change is that we now have incredible market information available to us that was not there 30 years ago. With the Internet and everything, we have a lot of information available to us.
As for one change that would be good to see, I think it would be speeding up the regulatory process. When we're registering new product, stuff like that, if we could speed that up, that would be huge.
2:25 p.m.
Conservative
2:25 p.m.
As an Individual
Of course I have comments.
I'm not going to comment about the one thing that's changed from my past, only what I'd like to see coming. What I see coming is a much keener interest from the consumer in where food is grown, which is something they haven't been interested in for the last 30 years, since we started farming. That presents a huge opportunity for us to get back to the retailing side, which we have zero experience with, and get connected with the consumer again and see where that goes. That's a huge opportunity coming.
I wish I could come up with one thing that would change absolutely everything. That would be great, but I can't do it right now.
2:25 p.m.
As an Individual
I could visualize just one thing: interprovincial transfer of land from one generation to another. We did that about 15 years ago. The provincial government at that time bought land off farmers who were retiring. They were giving it to the people who needed it the most. Five years later, all the farmers rejected the whole concept. So we did have what you call a land bank, but it was rejected completely.
The only thing I could visualize is interprovincial land transfer to younger people. But how do we do that? That's another question.
2:25 p.m.
Conservative
2:25 p.m.
Conservative
Bev Shipley Conservative Lambton—Kent—Middlesex, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, witnesses.
I'm sort of one of the foreigners in the group here. I'm from Ontario. I've farmed all my life. I was in dairy and cash crops. I have three children who are not farming. They have chosen different careers, not that farming was bad.
I'm interested in the comments that have come about here. Will we have more farmers or fewer farmers? How do we get them in? Recognizing some of the things that have come out here, I'm so impressed as we look to the future of agriculture.
I'd like a comment. When I was growing up, and when many of us were in agriculture not that many years ago, we grew a crop for food. We raised an animal for food, whether it was pork or beef or whatever. Now when I'm talking to some of the young people in my area, I see their optimism. They talk about the diversification within agriculture such that we're now looking at growing canola not just for the oil or the feed. We were just down at a feedlot today that has that sort of vision for the future.
I'm wondering, in terms of the positive part of agriculture--because I think there is an incredible opportunity in agriculture--whether that is something that each of you would see as being important for the success and the sustainability of young farmers.
I also want to mention to Rodney, and to Jason particularly, that I just had a motion, M-460, that came forward to deal exactly with the regulatory issues around cropping inputs--management input products, as they're called--with regard to the licensing and the lack of ability.... We did not get quite the support of all of Parliament that I wanted, but we got enough to move that through. When we were talking about competitiveness in agriculture, it was a common thread, one of those issues that has come down through all the discussions, as it did today. If we can get the playing field to be a lot more level, then some of those issues about getting the cheque in the mailbox will not be nearly as important. I'm not sure how we can get agriculture firing on all eight cylinders at once. If you can tell me that, you will be a genius.
That is always one of the issues. It seems to me that over the years, for generations, there has always been a part of an agricultural sector, pretty much outside of supply management, that fires on different cylinders at different times. One should never ever think that supply management is a ticket to making money. It's like every other business: one-third does well, one-third does okay, and one-third doesn't. It's about management.
I'll move on to my first question. I am also wondering whether you see the regulatory system as being important. If you do, I encourage you right now, as I'm moving forward with the ministers and the bureaucracy in the staging and the prioritizing and in getting the support for users across Canada, to write to me. I'll give you my card afterwards.
Can I just get a comment, in terms of the view...?
2:30 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
You have a minute and a half. We can have a couple of comments...unless you can do it briefly.
Mr. Thompson.
2:30 p.m.
As an Individual
Thank you.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but motion number M-460 applies to animal products as well. Is that correct?
2:30 p.m.
As an Individual
Right. I was a little concerned for a second. I didn't get into a lot of regulatory issues, because we have a lot, and I didn't want to get into them, but I agree that regulation is important. One of our biggest struggles and costs to the beef industry right now is also our regulatory agency, the CFIA.
I don't want to get into all of the problems. If anybody would like me to do that, I can. There's just no time to get into all of those issues.
I appreciate your bringing it up. It's important.
2:30 p.m.
Liberal
Wayne Easter Liberal Malpeque, PE
I wonder, Ryan, if you could write the committee a letter on the CFIA. Would that be possible?