I'll try to be brief, but I'd like each one of you to comment.
I often feel that we're trying to put out various fires here and there. Some things work; some things don't work. There's a debate in regard to trade in this country. Some people feel we should take agriculture right out of trade; others feel we have to get more trade agreements.
There's a debate on food sovereignty. People have different opinions on it. The solution obviously lies somewhere in between. We're a trading nation. We have to trade. At the same time, we need to have some type of control over our food supply. People are demanding good quality food from more farmers. Farmers can deliver it.
I'm going to talk about something that came out of a committee travel meeting such as this one a little while ago. I'd like each one of you to comment on this.
We were on a similar tour a couple of years ago. We made recommendations. One recommendation was that the federal government should encourage a policy of local procurement for federal government institutions. If there was a federal hospital for prisoners, we would encourage the institution to buy locally from farmers. This was agreed to unanimously by members of all parties on the committee. The push-back we had from the department was on the need to be very careful in administering our trade obligations.
I read an article in the Chicago Tribune last summer. The State of Illinois had mandated that 20% of procurement for state institutions would come from local farmers by the year 2020. We're a trading nation. The U.S. is a trading nation. They're doing things there that we're told we can't do here.
Within that context, what do we do? Maybe we could have one or two comments. Mr. Schulhauser or anyone who's ready to start could comment.