Anyhow, you know what I'm talking about. But I do go back a long way.
I know they were so badly priced at the time I took over the farm in 1965 that I pulled them all out and put in a lawn. Now I have to cut the grass. But it was still better than growing apples.
When I look at your recommendations, I know what you're doing. The replanting and growing varieties that people want to buy really has nothing to do with whether we buy a Canadian apple or an American apple. The price really isn't relevant. It's what people want. What we have to do here in Canada, in my opinion, is make.... And I guess your third recommendation--buy Canadian first--would not only apply to apples, but would apply to a lot of our fresh fruits and vegetables. Whether it's spinach, or whatever we buy, I think we should do more to buy Canadian first. If we took pride in doing that.... Because you couldn't buy a better apple than that from California.
What must we do? Have we not advertised properly: “buy Canadian first”? Do we need a policy of government? I don't think government should be involved in everything we do.
I'm concerned about that, because I know what's happening in the apple industry. And I guess when I look at support programs, we have business risk management, a program that is designed that hasn't yet been adopted by government. But would that program, if it were adopted for fruit growers, apply equally to you as it would to the grain growers and other people? Why not?