Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, gentlemen.
I was interested in a statement you made, Mr. Read, about a fundamental question that perhaps we should ask ourselves: what does this market look like? Does it look like a Canadian one? Does it look like a global one? How should we do that? I think that is the challenge, to be honest, and the real question we should ask ourselves. We should basically communicate that to the producers and to those of you in the processing end of the business so you know where you're at. Otherwise, we're asking you to shoot at a dartboard with perhaps no darts to throw.
Based on that, from your perspective, I hear you saying you're doing the things you believe you need to do to be competitive. But how do we solve the juxtaposition between the primary producer, who we've heard from in numerous cases and who's saying that if he is asked to produce more cows or if he simply has more cows, he's not making any more money, and the producers, who are kind of stuck between the consumer, if you will...? How do we manage to get a price point that actually satisfies the processors and the producers at the same time? How do we break through that logjam?
I understand that it's an extremely difficult question. I hate to challenge all of you with that, but somehow we need to get away from this idea that food should be cheap, to the point where the lowest person on the totem pole, which is always the producer, gets less and in some cases is going out of existence. As Mr. Nilsson said, the herd is reducing itself not because folks necessarily want to, but because they say they can't afford to keep it. It's just too expensive.
I realize that's a very broad statement, Mr. Read, but you did challenge us with a fundamental question. I think we need to hear from you what your thoughts are around those fundamental questions.
I'll start with Mr. Read and maybe work down to Mr. Nilsson.