In our agricultural co-op development program we have offered people some help and some grants to be able to help start new co-ops. One of the wonderful examples is what is happening on Vancouver Island, where not only the farmers but also consumers got together to develop a new kind of system.
One of the things they had to do was bypass the large retailers and go directly to restaurants. They've been going to hospitals and asking what people need that they can provide. They're then starting to give the co-ops orders; they say they need potatoes wrapped in a certain size of bag or they need these herbs or whatever. They are starting to develop a system that goes all the way from the customer--the restaurant, the hospital, the school--back down to the producer who says this is what the new customer wants.
It is definitely an issue. Mr. Easter knows about the issue of the co-op slaughterhouse in P.E.I. They're producing good Atlantic beef and they're having difficulty getting that product into the non-co-op stores. The co-op stores are buying it, but the non-co-op stores still seem to be wanting to select and buy centrally and then ship out to the regions, which is so ridiculous when you've got something being produced right in the region, in the Maritimes, and it could easily go to the large retail stores in the Maritimes.