Agriculture committee  The question was on how we can ensure Europe that there is no trace of GMO in the grains. We deal all the time with major-league exporters whose job it is to make sure that we avoid having any low-level presence issues in the grain. That's their job. Their livelihoods and profit

Agriculture committee  In Alberta the system of check-offs is what we call “mandatory refundable”. This means that people pay when they sell their grain. The money comes in. If they want it back they fill out a simple form and we send the money back. That's under legislation in Alberta because the Albe

Agriculture committee  I think the biggest opportunity for food barley marketing relates to barley flour, which Brian mentioned, as well as to using barley in other food products such as risotto. Quick-cook barley is one that is in development. The big push for barley right now for us is to create a fo

Agriculture committee  Europe isn't known for its barley food consumption by humans, but we would certainly like it to be.

Agriculture committee  I was just thinking about it, and maybe we should be getting barley for risotto. That would be really nice in Europe, I think.

Agriculture committee  And certainly France is one of those countries in Europe. They grow their own barley. One of the reasons they buy barley in France is to mix it, because of the difference in protein content. There is definitely room for some marketing towards that.

Agriculture committee  I was speaking of feed specifically. The malt barley is sold differently through contracts. For example, some of the bigger beer companies, such as Heineken, would have specific contracts that they would fill. It operates significantly differently.

Agriculture committee  We did so much marketing. How did you miss it?

Agriculture committee  Hulless barley, or food barley for human consumption, is less than 1% of the market share right now. What we've done is that we've gone ahead and got a health claim, which was obviously very rigorously vetted scientifically, to prove that barley is good for you. We've been using

Agriculture committee  That's the one without the cover on the seed—

Agriculture committee  Ms. Lisa Skierka —and when you go to the grocery store you would normally see it as pearled barley, usually, little bags of barley. Anyway, you have this health claim. It's an excellent story. Unfortunately, farmers don't grow very much of it because in the past it hasn't sold v

Agriculture committee  Yes, at the same time. So we try to create a little demand.... We missed you, but you weren't our target audience—

Agriculture committee  We try to create that demand so that we get contracts for a higher price for farmers while building markets.

Agriculture committee  In Alberta the farmers pay $1 per tonne of check-off. So when they sell their barley, $1 a tonne comes to the Alberta Barley Commission. It's what is called “mandatory refundable” in Alberta under our legislation, which means that they have to pay it, but we give it back to the

Agriculture committee  I can assure you that there is plenty of malt barley to go around.