Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I agree with Mr. Steckle. He said farmers believe choice is their right, and we would say that as well.
We need opportunities in western Canada. I did a study in 2001 in which I had somebody take a look at the number of specialty crop plants in Saskatchewan. At that time, we had 127 specialty crop plants. We also looked at the number of flour mills and had 14. According to my figures, 12 of them were owned by multinational, foreign-owned companies.
With the speciality crops, we had the opportunity to do something. Farmers were doing it; they were setting up plants and trying to do some other things. They didn't have that opportunity with grains.
The industry and the times are changing. We're moving to things like the nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, specialized grains, and to things like Mr. Venn. We need the opportunity to be able to participate in that, and the present system does not allow it.
Mr. Ritter can say we'll talk to Mr. Venn, but there is no opportunity. The Wheat Board has not even been able to market organic grain. The farmers have had to market their grain, then do a buyback through the Wheat Board in order to market their own organic grain, because it hasn't been a big enough lot for them to do that.
There are going to be twenty other things coming down the road that we need to be able to have the opportunity to succeed with. We don't have the chance to do that unless the system changes, so that farmers in western Canada have the opportunity to involve themselves in these kinds of things and get the premiums Mr. Venn is talking about.