Agriculture committee  Yes. Generally, we deliver to the end user.

Agriculture committee  In a perfect world, yes. That's always the challenge.

Agriculture committee  Of course not. You set up a pricing model and then inevitably you're pushed into a situation where you're trying to drive your costs down to ensure that, which is a challenge especially when we're dealing with a market like this and one that's so related to the U.S. and the fluctuations.

Agriculture committee  The first thing we do is to try to prevent them, which is probably a cliché answer, but we do everything we can to avoid them. For example, right now at our home farm we have 300 stocker cattle, and we practise what's called intensive grazing. The animals are moved every two or three days, depending on the size of the fields.

Agriculture committee  Mostly meat. Beef is our main one and chicken, pork. We do a little bit of lamb and a little bit of turkey as well.

Agriculture committee  Yes, and regarding the definition, a case in point under natural claims is that there's a very well-known product in the cattle industry called Rumensin, which is considered an ionophore in Canada. It's also considered an ionophore in the United States. However, ionophores are considered antibiotics in Canada and not in the U.S.

Agriculture committee  No, under the natural as well in Canada.

Agriculture committee  With what we had to submit to CFIA to maintain our natural claims, Rumensin can never be used because it's considered an antibiotic.

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  Yes. I'm just specifying natural and organic, and more than anything else, in comparison to the U.S. market.

Agriculture committee  With regard to the difference I think the inspection and the auditing process is probably the first big hurdle. Most farmers tend to be somewhat private, if you will, and the notion of having someone come in and walk through their farm and assess it tends to be a shock. So that's often the initial hurdle that we need to somehow overcome.

Agriculture committee  Yes, they forward plan, whereas I think a lot of commodity-based farmers tend to be a little...they're flexible, but it might be more with regard to weather or market conditions as to what you're going to grow on a given year. Crop rotation is so big, because we can't use pesticides in growing the crops.

Agriculture committee  Even the slaughterhouses have to be inspected. One of the critical points for slaughter is that our animals are always done first thing in the morning. The slaughterhouse has to be able to provide us the facility to kill first thing in the morning. They are very stringent in their cleaning procedures and everything else, but by having ours done first, whether it's organic or natural—

Agriculture committee  Yes. Most of the poultry plants are small, and they might be able to dedicate a whole day to them. The two plants we use for beef are larger, and they'll have their own production following ours, but ours has to be done first to ensure that—

Agriculture committee  No, we've never had to.