I think you are right, the times are conducive to the progress of new ideas on the international scene. It is clear that the financial crisis had an impact , but if we think about the situation that existed scarcely 12 months ago, we will recall that we were dealing with a world food crisis or, at the very least, a crisis involving the cost of food. This crisis gave many people pause for thought.
Here in Canada, we can discuss these matters from a very comfortable, serene place, because few people in Canada cannot afford to eat. I visited certain African countries on several occasions, and, last fall, I travelled to India, China and elsewhere in Asia. You can see that, for some countries, feeding their people is a daily concern, a daily challenge.
Last year, I participated in several meetings of experts in Europe. I received several invitations as a guest speaker at the European Parliament and elsewhere. I repeated, every time I spoke, that during this time of food crisis—last winter—we should all be aware of the fact that we were lucky not to have known such a food crisis during all of the previous years.
There is no world plan to ensure that we will have enough food on the planet. We have left it to market forces to ensure that there is enough food to go around to all the people on the planet. Last winter, people woke up and realized that we were running the risk of not having enough food for the entire world and that we needed a plan.
I hope that, when we discuss trade issues in future in Geneva, we will also include the need to develop a strategic plan to ensure that, year after year, we will have enough food to feed the world's population and to create a reserve, because we need one. If a few countries in the world suffered a poor harvest for one year, it would result in stock shortages everywhere. You saw what countries did when they had shortages: they put restrictions on exports. They kept their food, which was quite understandable. A billion people live in India. You can understand why the president of India decided that he would not export rice. He preferred not to export because he was facing problems with his own people. Farmers were not happy because they had an opportunity to sell their rice at a higher price, but they were unable to do so.
We need to have a trade discussion that will include other parameters, and not just business for the sake of business.