Some of the people we met in western Canada told us—and my colleagues who were with me will correct me if I'm wrong—that the major problem with the Department of Agriculture was that its officials did not grow up on farms and that they really couldn't tell the difference between a carrot and a turnip.
So about this and decided I thought that it might make sense. Indeed, 35 or 40 years ago, departmental officials were all sons or grandsons of farmers. So they were connected in one way or another to farming. But today, how many departmental officials know anything about farming? I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't more than 5% of all departmental employees. Further, these people probably don't work in Ottawa, but rather in rural areas.