I welcome the House of Commons committee. Thanks for coming here today, and to Larry Miller for setting this up for us.
My name is Grant Caswell. I'm a third-generation farmer. I work beside my father and uncle on a dairy and beef operation just outside Meaford. Currently I have been working off the farm for the last ten years as a farm equipment technician.
Working off the farm as a farm equipment technician allows me to deal with a lot of different types of farming, farming styles, and people in general. We see how market prices fluctuate; they affect their bottom line and ours. For example, if they have no money, we don't get the work.
My father also told me I should get a job off the farm to get a different perspective on the way things work, and the lifestyle, and that when I wanted to come back to the farm full-time, it would be my own decision and on my own terms. I have been discussing the opportunity to return home to farm full-time. The obstacle I have found is to see how the farm is going to generate enough income to support an extra family on that farm as well.
Yes, farming is a lifestyle, but it is still a business. Unlike any other business that only requires a 40-hour work week, we work long, hard hours every day for livestock and crops that we cannot set a market price on. No other business sector can take such a continuous loss and still keep going. The average farmer today is 60 years of age. If no one in the younger generations can take their place, everyone will have to pay more for the food we eat, and it will mean a loss of jobs in the other branches that deal with agriculture in general.
Every dollar a farmer spends goes through nine hands before the end result. Currently there are no federal-provincial aid programs that any one farmer could count on or could take to the bank. We almost need a five-year outlook plan, and always plans to be looking forward and not dealing with the past.
Money spent on meat packing plants instead of farmers makes no sense, because they are the middle man and they pay nothing for the livestock, but then sell to consumers for top dollar. Farmers are working harder to improve their income by shopping other markets and selling their products, but as the input costs keep rising, they just take away from the farmer's bottom line. As everyone may know, we can't put a fuel surcharge for trucking and freight on all the products that leave our door. If only farmers could get paid what it cost to produce their products, it would be a thriving business.
In conclusion, we are the backbone of society, doing our best. We just want to be recognized for the great job we are doing. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. I hope you can get some information from this.