Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  I think years ago that statement in terms of cigarettes would have probably met with the same reaction, and now it's common knowledge. I'm just throwing that out and trying to be ahead of the curve here. I don't think we're going to be that far off. There will be research done that will reach the average consumer and their awareness about what's going into their meat supply, and the effects on health will become apparent.

Agriculture committee  We're looking at about $3.00 or $3.05 a pound on the hanging weight, and a commodity animal would be around $2.05 to $2.10, depending on premiums, etc. In that regard it's a substantial increased cost.

Agriculture committee  Lately we've been dealing more with bigger companies, so it has been all about learning about scale and learning how to play something like this on this scale. The challenges primarily tend to be, getting back to my earlier notes, about pricing and about the comparison with the U.S.

Agriculture committee  We use two federal facilities in Toronto.

Agriculture committee  It's what you just said, as well as convincing the retailer to pay for the true value of that meat. So we're working on two things in conjunction. If the retailer were aware and willing to share in the added costs of growing, I think he'd be looking at somewhere between 20% and 30% more.

Agriculture committee  Thanks for the question. That's a tough one for me to answer just because I'm not particularly one to go out looking for assistance—and many farmers are probably in a similar boat—so we've never really gone out to look for assistance. My proposal here has been more to mention and to bring to light the challenges that we have for organic and natural meat within Canada.

Agriculture committee  It happens in all of them, but far less in the organic and the natural because the United States is at a deficit right now in terms of organic supply. So we've been competing with American buyers to lock up organic beef in some of the prairie provinces. In that regard I'm talking more of the commodity side of things being flooded here.

Agriculture committee  I was expecting this type of a question. Organic means “certified organic”. The biggest difference between organic and natural has to do with the fact that, first, there is a third party that is hired to authenticate the claims to make it certified, and second, that the feed is certified organic as well.

Agriculture committee  That's quite similar in most of the species. I'm talking beef, but chicken and pork would be the same.

Agriculture committee  My wife and I began as certified organic. We didn't make a transition. When we took up farming we jumped right into certified organic and didn't know any better, so we never went through a conversion piece. What we ended up doing was adding natural afterwards, which is not the logical thing, but we found that with certified organic, because it's at the highest price point, there was a dedicated and loyal following but the growth would be much slower.

Agriculture committee  Yes, there definitely are both. As I mentioned earlier, the supply chain is so broken up into different stages that there is a real communication issue within the beef industry, which doesn't exist with poultry and pork, and specifically with something like genetics, right? So you have a cow-calf operator who has been raising young calves for sale and is selling them to a buyer, who then sells them to a feedlot, which then sells them to a packer.

Agriculture committee  From a beef standpoint, I'd have to concur with the person who wrote to you. Beef animals, by nature, tend to be quite large, obviously, so the sheer logistics of shooting an animal, bleeding it out, and somehow transporting it to a federal facility, if that's what's required, would be quite a strain, I think, especially if you look at environment and distance.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for this opportunity to come. It's my first time. My wife and I are organic farmers north of Toronto in Ontario. We've been asked to come and speak a bit to the organic and natural side of the supply chain. So, more specifically, I'll talk with regard to beef. That's what we know best and we raise a cattle herd at home.