Well, there are two parts to that question. If you look at what our government has done to compete... Again, as for Minister Ritz, I don't think he saw his home all last year because he was out opening up markets for the beef and hog sectors.
I look at you and I say, “What are you going to do as a producer to compete?” It's tough to say this now because you don't have the sources or the funds to do that. It's always easy to say that we can go and do a marketing plan and everything else, but we never seem to do that when we're on top of the market. We always wait until we're at the bottom of the market and then we react. That's unfortunate, but that's the reality of the things that happen when you go to the marketing of different hogs.
If you look at what our government is doing... We're trying to do everything we can and we're working with you guys to keep you there, but there are some hard realities that come with any industry, whether it's grain, hogs, or beef. There are times when people have to make tough choices, and it's horrible. I'm a grain farmer and I understand that. In 2005, I was faced with those choices myself. I still farm--scaled back but still operating--but those are the tough choices that you have to make.
All I can say is that I look for programs that are going to bring you up and bridge you when the time comes down, but if there's a structural change going on in your industry such that it doesn't see a light at the end of the tunnel, then are we helping you by keeping you in there for another 10 or 15 years?
But as you've pointed out, Stephen, there are some changes coming forward. I feel optimistic that way. Now we have to convince the banker that there's some optimism so that your barn goes up from $250,000 in value to a million dollars again. Because what's he going to do, sitting there with a barn, if the industry collapses? He's not going to get even $250,000 for it. He may get $50,000 for it. That's why he's sitting there and holding back. We threw government guarantees at those loans and they still wouldn't touch them, so that tells me how serious it is for this industry.
Also, the FCC is usually the bank of last choice for farmers, and if they're going cautious on this industry, that sends up a big warning flag to me as a producer, because I know that the FCC will usually bend over backwards to try to get a loan through for a farmer. That tells me there are some structural things that have happened in the industry and that need to be addressed.
We can do the market access, which Minister Ritz is doing, and we can give you funding to go out and develop those markets, which we're doing through our AgriStability programs and AgriFlexibility and all of that, but we also have to get from A to Z sometime soon here too.