Adam and I are going to kind of tag-team here.
I want to thank Bev for the opportunity to be here today.
Just to give you a little background on who we are, we're a multi-generational farm, mostly cash crop. We're multiple partners. That may sound bad, but it's a good thing. So we're mostly cash crop but we also are a seed toller for a major seed company. We also are a maple syrup producer. So we are fairly diversified.
I've done a lot of thinking about this. We had ten people together in a room this morning, and everybody had a different opinion on what government should do. I think that, unfortunately, is how things have gone probably for a long time.
My grandfather was a UFO. Most of you probably don't know what that means. He was a member of the United Farmers of Ontario. He was a member of Parliament here in Ontario. I looked back on some of his speeches starting at about World War II, and the problems we have today have existed since then. At that time a lot of people went overseas, they came back, and they didn't go back to the farm, but took a job somewhere else. I think this change in agriculture has been coming on for 70 years.
I think my dad had the first biggest problem, because he had four boys who wanted to farm. I would bet anybody who's speaking on agriculture here today was probably born on a farm, because if you weren't I think the odds of getting into agriculture are pretty low--zero--unless you win a lottery or you're absolutely brilliant.
Our problem these days is still the ability to remain profitable year in and year out. Obviously we couldn't farm unless we were born into it. Our problem is the ability to be able to pay, as an employer, the next generation to farm.
My boys have all had post-secondary education. My oldest son got a job where he makes three times the amount of money that I could ever afford to pay him. I told him he'd be a fool to come home. He still wants to, but I said to him, “In the short term, look at the big world, see what's out there, and if you still want to, feel free to come home.”