I often agree with my colleague across the way, but not always. We aren't doing the study because there is a fear that agriculture is going to collapse; we're doing the study to see how we can assist.
We do hear a lot of very positive things about people coming in. We also do hear large concerns, and they come from different individuals with different scopes, which means that as we go across the country it becomes clearly understandable why it is so difficult to get a national program as we have it struck now.
One concern that keeps coming up is the smaller number of farmers under 35. As you go through your communities, I wonder whether you see this happening. And why do you think it is happening? What we're hearing and seeing is that those who seem to be very successful at it have to have administrative ability within their business to move forward.
We have fewer numbers farming larger amounts of land and milking more cows, raising more chickens, more beef, or more pork, whatever it is, and yet, as Alex has explained, we have smaller farmers who have gone out for markets, and they can be successful in those—not every one; not every business is successful. I think what we are seeing in Canada is that there has to be a blend, and some of that blend occurs across the different parts of the country with different sorts of products, because of our geography.
One thing I wonder about when farmers are growing products—and we have seen some very large ones and some not so large ones—is getting access to capital.
You talked about that, Ashley, in terms of having loans, maybe interest-free loans.
One of the concerns we have right now is that interest will never be lower. Capitalizing sometimes by subsidizing will make capitalization a big concern by driving up land prices, driving up equipment prices sometimes, as we saw also with fertilizer, sometimes driving up rent prices.
Do you see getting access to credit as one of the keys, as young farmers, to why maybe you didn't get in, or are there some other social aspects that affect this?
We have three children. I farmed, enjoyed it, loved it, was successful at it, but they all chose their own careers. That's the way it is. Now there are five farms around our area that are run by one young farmer, and he is doing a great job. The capitalization, though, is an issue.
Do you see that as one of the major ones, getting credit?