Agriculture committee  Actually there has been quite a bit of research done across Canada on things like a carbon market. A carbon market can work in many ways. We talk about it conceptually, but certainly there is a lot of interest nowadays in not just the carbon market, but the payment for environmen

Agriculture committee  Last year I gave testimony to the environment committee here at the House of Commons on that topic. I've written quite a lot on the biofuels. Without going into a lot of detail, it has been my judgment that the second generation of biofuels is quite a considerable distance away,

Agriculture committee  There are a number of problems with using switchgrass or any of these other cellulosic materials. The main problems relate to the handling, the storing, the transportation, the logistics of getting a huge volume through the system. We live in a country where we have one growing s

Agriculture committee  I didn't prepare a shopping list to come here today, but there certainly are many. I think that many of the traditional areas of agricultural research have been neglected in recent years as there has been more of a dependence placed on the private sector to undertake this kind of

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Canadian agriculture operates in a highly competitive global environment and is a major player in international markets. Canadian agriculture and agrifood exports have almost tripled since the early 1990s, from $10.7 billion in 1990 to $28 billion in 200

Agriculture committee  There are all kinds of mixed farms, but I'm saying if you separate the residual claimants to land, labour, and capital, the labour resource doesn't get anything in the end. In the beef sector, the feedlots and the backgrounders will eventually adjust, and there will be a beef ind

Agriculture committee  Of course there are many ways you can do this. I've been a promoter of the biogas, for example, that's generated from manure and other organic waste that can produce electricity, but of course it's very uneconomic to do at the present time. The reason they can do it in Germany, A

Agriculture committee  It's because the rental values go up. This and other aspects have been well studied, and already you're seeing cash rents almost double from last year.

Agriculture committee  No, it's around the world. The structure of the crop sector in Canada is what we call perfect competition. This will always happen. The price of land will come up to the capitalized value of these benefits. If you don't own land yourself, you've got to pay for the use of that lan

Agriculture committee  Yes, I worry that this could change the fundamental nature of agriculture production in Canada and in the United States and around the world, really. It will go from being for food and feed production to being for more biofuel production. I think it's certainly going to exasper

Agriculture committee  I've seen many economic studies that have been done on this, and it's from them that I'm taking my information. Yes, if I could get it organized so that there would be an ethanol plant right in Canwood, Saskatchewan, I think the people of Canwood would be very happy, because ther

Agriculture committee  No, that's not what I'm suggesting. I'm saying that the proponents of the biofuels industry have, I think, to some extent exaggerated the level of economic activity that will be taking place. If you listen to Mr. Toews and others from the cattle industry or from the pig industry,

Agriculture committee  Generally, I don't like to see passing the hat among the taxpayers to help out any particular sector, if they can't make it on their own. However, I'm not against giving some kind of help to get started. I guess what I would like to have seen is this kind of assistance given to

Agriculture committee  We live in a market society and a market economy, and the markets will clear. No matter how much wheat or corn or canola is taken out of the market to produce biofuels, the price will adjust upwards and somebody will buy it. It will just become more and more expensive as more is

Agriculture committee  I don't want to leave the impression that I'm completely negative on this. I'm trying to show what the impacts are going to be. I'm only a voter. I try to be as objective as I can in my research, and I think I'm correct about the impacts. I have not done research on canola. I do