Yes, good evening, gentlemen, ladies.
My name is Ranald MacFarlane. I'm a dairy farmer from Fernwood. I'm dairy, I'm beef, I've got hogs. I work very hard. I'm the hardest-working guy. I know I'm the last hog farmer in my community. My net income without any off-farm income for 2005 was $13,500. I have a very firm belief that for every farmer who goes bankrupt in P.E.I., we should fire one person in the Carling Building, because this is just quite unacceptable.
A lot of farmers presented here tonight, and what they probably neglected to tell you was that everybody has an off-farm income. They're sending people off the farm to make money to subsidize food production. This is wrong.
On October 5, 2027, I'm going to turn 60. I have very little RRSP, I have no savings, I have a little bit of debt. I've got two friends who just quit. I will call them my friends. They have nothing. They've got about $500,000 debt, and that's all they've got. It's a funny thing: when you turn 40, suddenly everybody's a capitalist, and you have to think of your future and you have to think of your kids. This is just like the Newfoundland cod fishery. Someday people are going to be standing around pointing fingers, saying, it's gone and it's never coming back; the corporation has ruined it. Whose fault is it?
And I will remember who helped and who didn't. Don't worry.
Off-farm income should not have to be a factor for young farmers, but it is. All the agriculture out there is overcapitalized. It's been my experience that credit is too easy to get. The government has preached that bigger is better, bigger is better. Bigger is not better. I farm 100 acres. I inherited that farm. I come from a Scottish Presbyterian background. We believe that if you don't have it, you don't need it, and you ain't going to borrow for it. We've got a fear of God and a complete fear of the banks. I don't want to take on either one.
So all this get big or get out...agriculture has never had an ag policy. The only policy was an export policy, trade policy. You never had an ag policy. Get big or get out. Get even bigger or get out. Get even bigger or get out. Now it's just get out. And a lot of farmers are brainwashed into thinking that if we could just have more free trade...there are hog farmers who will say get rid of supply management because when that's gone, then things will open up. And to those people I say, softwood lumber.
Anyway, I didn't qualify for the farm families options program, and I wrote a letter to the editor. I accidentally declared bankruptcy in doing so, because I said, I'm broke, I'm really broke, and I don't qualify for that farm families options program. Two different companies called, demanding their money right off the bat when that letter to the editor was in the paper. It didn't cost me a cent to declare bankruptcy.
Anyway, having said that, people came to me who did qualify for the farm families options program because, I'll admit, I'm a bit of a media big mouth and people trust me. They came to me and they told me some very sad stories. There are perfectly good young farmers out there who did everything they were told to do, and they got screwed. There's no two ways about it. And the agriculture system, the little bit of semblance of agriculture system we have out there, owes them something better, because they were taught in the agricultural colleges how to do things. The lenders went at them. FCC and everybody--they're the biggest bunch of smiling liars you've ever met. They'll gladly give you the money until you hang yourself. Those people should get an apology, and there should be restructuring in how trade is done in this country.
The NFU's position is to take agriculture out of the WTO. You keep going to the WTO. You keep giving away the little bit we do have. The biggest priority coming up for the last election was getting that border open--we've got to get that border open. Well, the border isn't open. The priority was dismantling the Wheat Board, it turns out. Well, this is just one more example of how the government and the Carling Building and the federal agenda and the trade agenda are all out of whack. It's as if you don't care. I'm sorry I have to say this to you, but remember the cod stocks.
Anyway, we're talking about national food security. We're talking about regional food security. The countryside is broke. I just distributed meat today. I'm selling meat; I sell pork as a sideline. There's huge money in pork. If there's a hog farmer, please don't hit me. There is huge money in pork. The farmers don't get their share because Maple Leaf is out there raping the guys. They always have. The corporations take theirs first, and there's no two ways about it.
Why are the Maritimes not self-sufficient in pork but our price is based on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and it's all up to the distributors like Loblaws? They make huge profits. These poor hog guys in the Maritimes and right across the country have subsidized the huge profits at Maple Leaf, subsidized Loblaws, and what have you guys done?
I'm waiting for that part. This is rhetorical.
I liked the report, “Empowering Canadian Farmers in the Marketplace”. It was a perfectly good report. I thought, good, there's no need for any committees; there's the road map, boys. What have you done?
I didn't speed when coming here tonight, because I knew this would practically be a waste of my time, but I'm being polite and I'm here anyway.
Anyway, as for take agriculture out of the WTO, you keep going to the WTO and giving things away, and agriculture is losing money. We' have an accumulated debt of, what, $58 billion now?