Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank the guests for coming here today while they could be home on their ranch.
I've got to commend the National Farmers Union for the report they did. There was a lot of work on it. I'm disturbed with it, but I'm not surprised, seeing the return our farmers are getting. It's beyond me how the Minister of Agriculture can get up at the Canadian Federation of Agriculture meeting and state that all's well on the farm and ranch.
A couple of years ago I visited an operation in the United States. It was a broiler producer operation, and they were producing broilers for Tyson. He pretty well stated that he buys the feed from Tyson, he buys the chicks from Tyson, he has to sell them to Tyson, and he gets this printout. He pretty well stated that he's like a tenant farmer. He owns the building still, but he doesn't have enough return to put back into the buildings.
My question--why I'm telling you this story--is this. Are we on a bit of a slippery slope here, where, yes, we're still going to have these big processing plants, and we might have farmers in a situation where they're going to be caught in this, where they will have no choice but to buy the supplies and get the return? That's my first question.
My second question is, do you believe we should abolish the vertical integration of these packers, put them under examination or abolish it?
I think it was one of your witnesses here who alluded to the retailers' responsibility here, and I also heard something about grass-fed beef, how it's not getting the recognition and the help from retailers and processors.
My third question is, can you expand on this and tell us how the retailers can be playing a better role in helping the Canadian beef producers?