I would urge you, almost implore you, to read this. It's difficult reading, because they do go through the process and they go through the fear that Canadian farm women have, not only for their future but for their children's, and not only for their children but for their community. I think that is the difference between how farm women look at Canadian agriculture and how the policy directors and the bureaucrats look at Canadian agriculture. We look at it inside the context of family and the context of rural community.
Our solution has four pillars. Our four pillars include financial stability; domestic food policy; strengthening social and community infrastructures; and safe, healthy food and environment.
So there is a viable alternative vision of Canadian agriculture out there, and all we need to do is reject the current trend that we're now on, because it has led to disaster. It has led to the industry doing well, but 80% to 90% of the families in that industry going broke and putting “For Sale” signs on their farms or walking away. It doesn't have to be a doom and gloom picture. There are other decisions that can be made.
About two months ago, I think it was February 20, right here in this room, we spoke to the Senate Standing Committee on Agriculture and Forestry. I think I made the case very eloquently, but I took great exception, first of all, to some of their language: on their report's front page, “Understanding Freefall”, and so on, as if the current crisis in agriculture just fell out of the sky, that nothing caused it, it just happened overnight. Well, that's not true. The current crisis in agriculture was caused by deliberate policy and deliberate direction, and therefore the choices that came out of those decisions and that policy.
My farm is on the north side, about a half-hour's drive from here, and on the drive over here tonight I thought, when you're talking about something as basic as food and eating, going to the grocery store and buying your food products for your family, is it a policy that comes first when you're trying to negotiate how food is produced in this country, or is it a particular belief in direction that comes first? I know that's semantics, but I think we as a nation have to get our heads around whether this is a policy that we can live with. Is this a sustainable policy, or are we doing this because we think we have to follow suit in terms of global trade patterns?
So there are two opposing visions here. One is the vision we have right now, and it's not working. The other is a vision that Canadian farm women have put forward, and it will work.
Thank you very much.