Agriculture committee  We have to change that attitude and yours.

Agriculture committee  You can't start farming today unless you have your parents' help. That's a fact. It will not occur.

Agriculture committee  I'm far from being an economist, but I don't view $60,000 as being expensive for land. We have the cheapest land value here in this province of anywhere in the world. If you go to Alberta, you can't touch land for $1,200 or $1,300 an acre. If you go next door to Manitoba, it's $1,200 to $1,600 an acre.

Agriculture committee  For goodness' sake, let's keep our kids in the rural area by giving them a chance to stay on their family farms.

Agriculture committee  It doesn't work.

Agriculture committee  The oldest guy's usually out on the road, so the youngest guy gets the farm. That's how it goes.

Agriculture committee  Access to capital should be your main concern to drive producer investment and producer participation. Giving Husky Oil $80 million to go and develop ethanol is not a great move for rural Saskatchewan. Drive that back to the farmer participation level and then we'll start to see rural revitalization, not a plant in Lloydminster.

Agriculture committee  At the University of Saskatchewan, I guest lecture third- and fourth-year ag-economics students, and a big thing is attitude. It's hard for them in the third and fourth year. Just two weeks ago I asked the fourth-year students how many of them were going home to the farm, and out of the 70 there, two were going back to the farm.

Agriculture committee  I'll go first. With regard to the WTO, let's start with risk management and carry on from Mr. Easter with ethanol. The great thing that the rest of the world has shown us first is that the development of ethanol and biodiesel is not countervailable, it's GATT-green, and everybody else is doing it.

Agriculture committee  With regard to government intervention into ethanol, the 5% renewable fuels standard is only one step. There needs to be access for farmers to funds so they can invest in farmer-owned ethanol or biodiesel plants. Our farmers are coming off three years of negative farm income. They don't have money to invest in anything right now, let alone some ethanol or biodiesel project for their own area.

Agriculture committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair and committee members. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. On April 23 I am going to begin my 26th year in the grain industry. Over half of those years were spent in Winnipeg. I was fortunate to have the Honourable Otto Lang as a direct superior for four of those years, while I was at Pioneer Grain, and I worked with the Honourable Charlie Mayer during the last time barley was contemplated for the open market.