Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My name is Darcy Davis. I farm about 30 miles east of here, straight east. I have a slight grain operation--it's not very large any more--and a cow-calf operation.
I'll tell you a little bit about myself. I'm the past chair of the Alberta Beef Producers. I'm on the board of directors of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association. I'm a past president of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance. And I'm still working on some other efforts.
Another thing about me is that I have two daughters. One is taking horticulture in college right now. The other is on the farm and working off the farm. I have three nephews in my brother's operation who are working on the farm, trying to find their way through it. They just bought a herd of purebred cattle from a retiring farmer. So they're kind of going against the odds. I thought I'd put that in, as you've heard some things going the other way. How it turns out for them remains to be seen.
I really appreciate this opportunity to speak to you on this important subject. The lack of young farmers has been an issue since I was one myself.
The facts are fairly clear that the consolidation in farming has led to fewer young people staying on the farm. The consolidation has been a result of technology, larger and more efficient farm equipment, and thin profit margins, a result of variable input costs and market prices.
One other challenge is the cost of entry for a young person to start farming. The price of land and equipment is a barrier that many see as being too high to get over. Even generational farms have difficulties as young farmers buy out the older relatives' holdings.
But these are not new issues. For decades we have seen young people choose careers outside of agriculture even though they may have wanted to stay on the farm. The fact that it has been an issue for decades raises the question of whether the problem has a solution or is a fact of life.
Governments, both federal and provincial, have done a lot of work trying to assist and encourage young farmers. Success has been hard to gauge, which I am sure creates frustration. Government has a role to play, but we need to be very careful not to interfere in ways that create more problems than are solved.
Farming is a highly competitive business that operates for the most part in a free enterprise system and always has people exiting and entering the industry. Where government could play a role is doing its part to create markets that are as distortion-free as possible and that could provide opportunities for today's and tomorrow's producers. A business environment where we can use our Canadian advantages in a global market is achievable.
While the Doha Round of negotiations continues to drag on, Canada needs to do its part to be part of the solution and bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion. The George Morris Centre did a study where $30 billion a year could be gained annually for Canadian export agriculture through the Doha Round. So we need that to continue.
While the conclusion to Doha may take some time, I would encourage the present government in its efforts to negotiate a free trade agreement with the European Union. This is a massive market that would give a boost to the bottom line of a lot of Canadian farms.
Another trade avenue would be to become engaged in the trans-Pacific partnership agreement being worked on by a number of our existing trade partners. This multilateral agreement could give us the access we need to growing Asian markets. Pursuing and completing these free trade agreements and seeking new trade relationships are an excellent way to provide for another generation of farmers to have profitable operations.
Another signal to young people to stay in agriculture would be some changes in the regulatory environment that western Canadian farmers operate in. When the malt barley industry declares that it will not be making any further investments in Canada until we have an open market for barley, that is telling us that we have reached a dead end. We need our products to be processed in Canada.
I took part in a plebiscite in which a full two-thirds of prairie barley producers supported an open market for barley. Anyone looking to enter an industry would want to know that the government is listening to the producers of that industry and responding.
The last suggestion I will make is that while we acknowledge the fact that we operate in a very competitive world, the young Canadian farmers should be the best competitors they can be. I often tell young people that if they like driving a tractor, then they should get a job driving a tractor. If they want to farm, they need to like being business managers.
Agricultural colleges and universities need to be supported to give our farmers of tomorrow a chance to compete. These farmers of tomorrow need to have the technical understanding of growing crops and raising livestock, but they also have to have knowledge of markets, financing, and management. As well, it would be excellent if we valued those young people who get education and take on careers that support agriculture as much as those involved in production.
For Canada to be competitive, we need research scientists and agronomists who understand our advantages and challenges, but we also need new ideas in thinking. We need our colleges and universities to produce young people with degrees in agriculture policy. When I was chair of the Alberta Beef Producers we could find young people with marketing degrees, communication degrees, and business degrees, but nobody with anything in general agriculture policy.
Many of the land-grant universities in the U.S. have whole faculties teaching agriculture policy. The graduates of these schools go on to work for industry associations, and then take positions in government, both elected and bureaucratic. We need a talent pool of young people who can analyze regulations and legislation to figure out what the intended and unintended consequences of such actions will be. You're hearing a number of those issues today, whether it's payments to some sectors and not others, regulations on environmental situations, or those kinds of things.
In conclusion, for the government to be of assistance to young farmers it needs to be on their team, supporting, educating, and providing opportunity, but ultimately having the wisdom to know when to get out of the way.