Thanks, Larry.
I guess I can't fault consumers for going to the grocery store and looking for bargains, because they have their own issues to deal with. When you're trying to make a living and getting $15 an hour, paying your taxes, rent, fuel, and all the expenses, and you have to budget for food, well, you do the best you can. So we can't put the onus on the consumer to save the farmer's bacon. It's the government's responsibility if they see a problem—and I think you all see a problem—to fix it.
I think Fred is right. Say you took $10,000 per farm and said, “Here you go.” It wouldn't be long before agribusiness had all $10,000. They know what our costs are. They can reach into our pockets and take out to the penny exactly what they want. That's what the lack of competition and that market power allows them to do. So the answer is not in subsidy money. That won't get us where we need to go. We need policies that favour us and give us the market power back. We can compete with them on a one-on-one basis. That's what will save the family farm.
I mentioned the symptom-based approach, and I'm afraid we're going that way. We're asking how we're going to help young farmers. Young farmers don't stay young very long; pretty soon they're medium-aged farmers. Then those programs get sucked away from them and they're on their own in this unfair marketplace again.
So let's not just deal with, “Okay, we'll give you young guys a break.” That's going to get them another five years, maybe, and then they're in the marketplace like everybody else. Let's stick with what the real problem is and not the young farmer issue.