Finance committee  I'm not sure if I understood the question completely. Are you asking what we need from government over the next few years?

Finance committee  One of the things I know that general farm organizations are working on is how to create better business risk management programs to make sure that they cover severe downturns in farm income, but it's not something that Farmers of North America is involved in. We typically stick

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. As the chair already said, I represent Farmers of North America, or FNA, as we call it. FNA is a Canadian national farmers' business alliance. Its mission is to develop tools and products for farmers to maximize their profitability. It's consid

Health committee  Well, you know something, you're asking the wrong person if you're talking about seed. As far as pesticide application is concerned, the PMRA also makes sure that a crop-protection product is registered for use. It's on the label: registered for use, depending on what on what soi

Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  That's correct. Mr. Chair, if I may, since my name was invoked on another subject here, I need to make sure that it's on the record. Mr. Bennett said that by sustainability I meant a crop protection-free industry. Quite frankly, that's not at all what I said.

Health committee  When I mentioned sustainability, that dealt specifically with the mandate of the act, which talks about sustainable pest management strategies. Let's remember one thing. I mentioned one product earlier. It's Folicur. Folicur is a crop protection product used to prevent a fungus i

Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair and honourable members. It is a pleasure for me to be here. I'm here for Farmers of North America. I used to be a farmer myself in Wawanesa, Manitoba, which I always considered to be the insurance capital of Canada. I was a turkey and a hog produc

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Conceptually, that's how it works, but it doesn't technically work exactly like that because FNA, the farmer membership organization, is basically the tool that negotiates. FNA itself did not import fertilizer from Russia. That arrangement was made together with an input supply p

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Typically, the way it works is they get the discount upfront, immediately. In the case I used earlier, when that generic was introduced, our members got Aurora for $10.75 an acre, when Horizon, the original pesticide, was selling for $21 an acre. So they got the discount right up

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I think the projects should be pre-approved by, say, the agriculture department, together with agricultural organizations.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  My answer to that question would be that if budget cuts result in a more efficient regulatory system, then we applaud them. In fact, we wrote the Minister of Agriculture , Mr. Ritz, applauding him for eliminating the efficacy requirements at the CFIA for fertilizer. That's one of

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  No. When FNA was started, there was an organization in the U.S. that was interested in being part of the structure. I believe there were some that bought memberships. But Farmers of North America is a Canadian organization.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  FNA itself does not, but the president of FNA has interests in some input supply partners. We have what we call AgraCity, which has been doing the fertilizer. They are the ones who brought the fertilizer in through Churchill, as you might recall. We also have a generic pesticide

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes. In the federal-provincial governments' safety net programs or business management programs there is a top tier that's called AgriInvest. Part of the definition of AgriInvest is to invest in projects to maximize future revenue. Farmers can pull that money out any time they