Mr. Steckle asked some questions in terms of what we are doing and what you could do.
We've developed a relationship with the marketers. We meet quarterly and semi-annually with marketing, with the people who pack the apples in the bags. We work together on promotion, access some core funding, and we can advance funding to promote that.
We're starting to develop a relationship with the retailers, the Sobeys, the A&Ps, and the Loblaws. In fact, this past fall we financially contributed to some pages to promote apples, which is something, because right now clementines are kind of taking everybody's attention.
We're addressing the consumers at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. We're a part of that Foodland thing.
A policy to promote “buy Ontario”, “buy Canadian”--we're talking two levels of government here--would be very nice. Lip service would perhaps be even nicer. My belief is that most Canadians...when we start out to buy, we probably don't have a problem thinking we'd like to buy Canadian food, until we get to the store and the promotion drags us aside, or the pricing drags us aside. I'm afraid we have to match the pricing.
Honey Crisp--you heard about the returns to the farmer, and that's because the pricing at the store is up. It doesn't matter whether they're Ontario, Nova Scotia, or Washington Honey Crisp, they're up there. So if we can produce it, why should we have to import it? You walk into the store and the flag is important. “Foodland Ontario” is a good logo.
Those are five things: retailers, marketers, consumers, a national buy Canadian policy, and lip service. None of what we say matters, but if we keep saying it often enough, they'll start believing us. And that's what the marketing board is saying: buy the food your neighbours grow.
