I'm 48 years old, and through my 26 years of farming, I have grown six alternative crops. All six have failed and failed miserably. It is very trying, and these are costly failures. I would suggest that a new agriculture venture would cost any one of us here a minimum of a quarter of a million dollars--money we don't have.
My land has been in my family for 250 years, and I want to keep that land. I'm not going to leave it willingly. I have a lot of debt. I hope there's a future for my son or my grandson, but it's going to take some new federal ag policy, period. At my age, I'm too old to start again. I've learned my lesson in agriculture. It's been 26 tough years, and I'm not going down that road again.
If I can see commitment from this federal government to turn this around with some support for the Canadian farm family, yes, I'll turn my son and my grandson loose, but not before. It's too costly. It's too hurtful. That's it, in a nutshell.