Thank you all for being here today. We're really glad we were able to be here in Manitoba today to hear your thoughts and your ideas and your suggestions about the future of farming, as people who are the future of farming; it's very important.
Of course, as you're well aware, we've been touring across the country to have the opportunity to hear from people in various parts of the country who are actively on the ground, who really are the face and the future of farming, to hear your thoughts on how that best might happen.
This really is where the heart of the matter lies--trying to ensure there's some way for people like you to continue with farming. As you all know, the average age of the farmer is increasing. More and more young people are choosing to leave the farm. I'm an example. I have to admit that I myself chose to leave the farm. I come from Alberta, and I have a brother who tried to make a go of it on the farm and took a job off the farm in the oil patch to try to pay for his farming habit, I guess. He discovered that he was making so much money in the oil patch that it just didn't make any sense for him to continue on with farming.
It's regrettable that we see more and more of that. We have to find a way to make it attractive to remain on the farm, to make it profitable to remain on the farm, so that young people will stay and will choose to get into the industry.
With that in mind, I would like to throw out a couple of very broad questions at you that I think are thought-provoking. I've been asking a similar question all across the country and I've been getting some pretty common threads in the answer. But it's a question that I think is really helpful for me to really figure out where the future needs to be.
As young farmers, what's the biggest difference that you see in the industry now as compared to when your parents were getting started in farming? What do you think has been the biggest change? I know there are some pretty young faces out there. I don't imagine there's a lot of you who are at the point where you have kids who are at that point of thinking about taking over the farm or not. Looking forward into the future, where do you see agriculture at that point in time? Would you be suggesting to your children that they remain on the farm and try to make a go of it as well?
I know it requires a bit of a look back and a bit of a look into the future, but I'd like to ask each of you to share your thoughts on that with me.