I don't believe in reference margin programs in the long term. They're like crop insurance; when you have deteriorating crops over a series of years, it doesn't work for you. This doesn't either.
If we look at what we've seen happening in terms of our exports, in 1993 we exported $12 billion, and today we're exporting $24 billion, $25 billion, $26 billion. We've never seen agriculturalists so poverty stricken as they have been for the last three or four years.
Colleen, you're absolutely right. If we're simply going to feed into this export concept so that the multinationals are going to make huge money on it and the primary producers are going bust, then I don't know what we're busting ourselves up for, because really it's for no good cause.
You were also wondering about whether we should be talking about having a report and asking for the books to be opened. Those books have been opened, and we have a report that you can read. You need only read that someone was making 600% when in fact they were taking $200 an animal for offal. It was not true at all. We have that report and we'd be happy to share it with you. So that's been done. We don't need to do that again.
Let me tell you that we, as farmers, have been taken for suckers. We've been taken for suckers for far too long. The supply management system has worked, and until we're ready to move forward boldly and do things differently.... We can call it whatever we want, but unless we're prepared to change what we have done in the past and move radically forward.... I quite believe--and you talked about doing certain things--we need to take a great step even further than that. I believe agriculture needs to be brought under the umbrella of one single government in this country.
The U.S. has one farm plan for 50 states. We have 10 provinces, three territories and a federal government trying to do agriculture. It doesn't work.
What are your comments?