Agriculture Committee on June 2nd, 2014

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you very much, Mr. Payne.

I do apologize to Madam Brosseau, but now is your turn, for five minutes please.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, James Smith, for all the work you do. It's obviously life-saving in certain countries the difference that you do make.

I found it really impressive that you get and process three million kilograms of food which translates into 32 million servings. In this year, 2014, you have a projection of four million kilograms which will translate into 43 million servings. How much of that goes to other countries, and how much of it stays in Canada?

[James Smith]

The bulk of it actually goes for foreign relief and aid. We make it available to soup kitchens and food banks here in Canada, but the simple answer is that it's not well received. It's very basic food, whereas most food banks in Canada have food that our citizens are more accustomed to cooking with. You can think of canned goods and packaged goods. We're finding that given the choice, this has not been well received by patrons of the food banks. They simply don't know what to do with it or don't want it. It's not very pretty looking once the vegetables are dehydrated.

[LaVar Payne, Conservative, Medicine Hat, AB]

It tastes good.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

LaVar said it tastes good. I think we need some samples.

[James Smith]

Once it's cooked up.... It's probably more common to go to soup kitchens whereby it is made into a soup and the cooks there probably have the skills to know what to do with it, whereas maybe some of the patrons of food banks are not as familiar with cooking dehydrated vegetables.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Maybe there's some work that could be done with education around this food. It's still good and it's still healthy.

[James Smith]

We would be happy to partner with anyone, home economists or dietitians who would be willing to educate people on that.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

This is really a non-profit group. You don't get any kind of aid from the government. You just work with your volunteers and fundraise and you get donations. Is that correct?

[James Smith]

What you just described is exactly it.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Also I think you said there are five gleaners altogether: three in B.C., one in Alberta and one in Ontario?

[James Smith]

There are three in Ontario. Two just started up this year.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

This is very interesting. I would like to see if it is possible to bring something like this in my province, because we do have food waste, and I think this is a very important question that we're studying here in committee.

Also, you touched on the education aspect. In the United States they adopted a law in 1996, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act. With the exception of negligence or wilful misconduct, the law protects all donors in good faith from criminal liability if food causes harm to the recipients. Other countries such as Australia and Italy have adopted similar things. Do you think this is something the government should look at, perhaps adopt something along those lines to help facilitate the better and more sustainable distribution of food?

[James Smith]

My understanding is that a number of provinces have similar legislation. Alberta certainly does, and to the best of my knowledge B.C. and Ontario have something similar. I may not be correct on that one, but I do know that Alberta has similar legislation for that very reason.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

Do you have any suggestions on how we could, as a government, help reduce food waste, or better facilitate the distribution of food? You've done some great work. Is there something we should be looking at in committee?

[James Smith]

If you could promote dialogue with packers and producers, and in some way encourage them, make them aware of what we can do, this would help immensely. There is still some reluctance on the parts of major producers and packers to donate to us. We know we can process a lot more of what's available out there.

[Ruth Ellen Brosseau, NDP, Berthier—Maskinongé, QC]

I know.

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bev Shipley]

Thank you, Madam Brosseau.

We'll now go to Mr. Eyking, for five minutes.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Mr. Smith, for coming today.

As a vegetable farmer, I realize the waste we have in the fields, especially now with the chain stores. Most of them just want number ones. When you run off the field, there are always 10% to 15% number twos, and many times there's no home for them. It's great that you guys are doing this work.

I'm from Atlantic Canada, but I don't think we have anything like your operation in Atlantic Canada. Is there a push to have nationwide gleaners across the country?

[James Smith]

We haven't been pushing for it, but there is growing interest and we are getting requests. Actually, there's a group in P.E.I. that has approached us asking if we can assist them. There's another one, I believe, in Nova Scotia. I mentioned that there are a number that have shown interest, even in the States. We're finding that this is growing, and we will do everything we can to help and assist and encourage this, because we know there's room for expansion.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Can you explain a little bit about the products you have? You talked about some of the crops. Did you say it's frozen or dried?

[James Smith]

We have received frozen produce in the past. For example, not too far from us in the city of Lethbridge there are packing plants that take sweet corn for the frozen corn market. We've received that from them in the past, and frozen green peas.

Most of what we receive is fresh, though: damaged, bruised crops that have had some hail damage to them, potatoes that get broken and bruised in the harvest. It just goes on and on when you think about it.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

It's a dried product, right? Would it be in five-pound bags, or five-kilo bags? What does your product look like?

[James Smith]

The standard we've adopted is it's in a bag with a three-pound quantity. The bag would be thirteen inches high by six inches wide.

[Mark Eyking, Liberal, Sydney—Victoria, NS]

Okay. You were mentioning you have a lot of volunteers, and of course, the food you're getting is at hardly any cost, but still there's a considerable amount of cost for electricity, gas, or whatever, to produce this product and the packaging. Where do you get your revenues from if the people buying your product are just FOB your plant? How do you pay for your costs?