Of course it would be hard for us to start over farming something else. For some people, it is a matter of age. Let us not fool ourselves: a 65-year-old will probably not consider that to be an option. Right now, we are expecting businesses to merge, such as medium-sized farms that want to expand. In Saint-Amable, there are a lot of workers, lots of young people. The problem is that the fathers of these young people have seen their net worth slashed to a third of what it was. As the bank manager sees it, Philippe Gemme was worth so much, but now he is not worth as much. It is kind of like trying to sell a $350,000 house that has pyrite in the basement. Nobody wants to buy it.
Bankers say that in Saint-Amable, land that used to be worth $8,000 is now worth no more than $3,000 because its only value is as land for growing corn. I am not saying that things will never go back to the way they were, but right now, the banks consider us to be risky. There will be changes, but we need money. We need a lot of money to start over doing something else.
Right now, land values have dropped by over half. For example, the warehouse that was supposed to store $1 million worth of potatoes is now being used to store machinery. Bank managers consider that warehouse's value to be the same as that of a machine shed.
We need support to enable young people to take over and farms to get back on their feet, whether by merging or doing something else. Some might be able to buy their neighbour's land if that neighbour is old enough or has enough land to retire from farming. Young people would be able to contribute if they had support or could take advantage of a special program because of the crisis. As I said before, once there has been a ministerial order, nothing changes.