Agriculture committee  I think this is more relevant particularly in the organic industry. We have many organic producers who are also marketers. We have organic marketers who are also producers. In the other parts of the industry, we tend to see bigger, commercial producers who are focused and spe

Agriculture committee  The organic sector, as part of the round table process, developed a strategy that was reflective of the whole chain. They used it to apply to federal government programming, whereby they got 75% funding, with the industry contributing 25%. In fact, in the process they were the

Agriculture committee  Again, it's referenced to our colleagues that come behind us, but just where the round table fits in, it is of course something like feed—they're a part of the chain. It makes a big difference on the revenues, the net income of the producers, but also on the outcome of the meat p

Agriculture committee  Where regulations fit into the round table discussions—for example, the pork has four initiatives. One is on cost competitiveness, another is on market access, a third is on the attributes of the product, and the fourth is on the innovation. There are regulations for good reason

Agriculture committee  I think in terms of access to market, it really does have a broad definition that would change from table to table. So for example, on the horticulture, they want more access to Canadian retailers for their product that is produced in season, and so they're undertaking some actio

Agriculture committee  I can answer.

Agriculture committee  That is one of the most effective benefits of having a round table: we do have the retailers there. Also, we do have the industry, which maybe has developed non-regulated systems, and we have the regulators. A lot of them are looking at how we actually put in place assurance syst

Agriculture committee  Yes, the documents are public on our website. They are a summary of the decisions taken and the actions that are committed to. As well, the various members of the round tables, whether it's the Ontario Cattlemen, for example, or the Canadian Meat Council, are mandated to go bac

Agriculture committee  The food processing round table has recognized that accessibility to retail markets is a major initiative. In fact, we have just established working groups to take a look at it. This is one of the priority areas. Any information that your particular retailer could provide to us w

Agriculture committee  Certainly that is an interesting concept. In this specific case, several representatives of the organic round table are also members of the grains round table to do exactly what you're talking about. The organics round table does cover horticulture products, grains, processed foo

Agriculture committee  Certainly.

Agriculture committee  All the results of the round tables go directly to the minister, but in terms of action, I'm afraid we'll have to refer you to our colleagues at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

Agriculture committee  In terms of the issues that come up at the round tables, certainly the whole labelling issue has come up a number of times, because the industry feels it impacts on their business. There is a tendency to focus on trying to resolve strategic actions, but we do use this as an oppor

Agriculture committee  As I indicated, there are three organizations that have access to this. The Canadian Beef Breeds Council is an organization made up of the various breeds--Simmental, Charolais, etc--and that is for semen, embryos, and live-breeding animals, whereas the Canadian Beef Export Federa

Agriculture committee  There's a requirement in the legacy fund that the Canadian Cattlemen's Association provide an annual plan in terms of the money that they want to access. There are three organizations that can access that--the Canadian Beef Export Federation, the Canadian Beef Breeds Council, and