Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, committee members.
My name is Danny Davison. I'm a 39-year-old father of four, so whenever I get a chance to take part in something that's meant for young farmers, I'm happier and happier as the years go by.
I'm a beef and apple farmer from Falmouth, not too far from here. I was here earlier this morning for the first set of panellists, and in a way I feel that farmers owe a bit of an apology, in that over the past two or three decades we certainly haven't done our due diligence in informing the public and government as to the importance we feel there is in a safe local food supply. Because we haven't been diligent enough, things have gotten to the point they have reached now, which is a crisis situation, really, in my opinion.
When we look at the problems facing agriculture—I had a list before I came in and made an even longer list while the first panellists were here about all the various issues there are with respect to getting new entrants in or making farms more attractive to young people and that sort of thing—ultimately, as many people have said previously, they come down to profitability. I think the agriculture community is in a very tough situation to be trying to fix profitability without, at this point, help from somebody else, that somebody maybe being government.
I speak with more familiarity about provincial agriculture than about the federal government's role in agriculture, but certainly, speaking locally, the two-ish retailer system we have here in this province and in the Maritimes in general is a real issue in terms of getting profitability back to producers, both with respect to the amount of shelf space that is provided for local production as well as the pricing of that product, if we are lucky enough to get it on the store shelves. Ultimately, even if we have the shelf space we're dealing with any number of regions in the world that on a global scale ultimately can produce many of the same products we produce here, but at a seemingly significantly lower cost, for any number of reasons such as access to cheaper labour, maybe less-stringent restrictions on products they can use and how much they can use, and possibly government subsidies in those other countries. The profitability issue, if we could work on fixing it, would to my mind be one that would make a lot of our other issues go away.
In terms of fixing it, again at a provincial level there has been talk about a tax-rebate type of system, for retailers to promote or give rebates on the amount of local produce they have on their shelves. There's also, of course, the heavier-handed approach, which would require legislation to force them to provide a certain amount of shelf space at a certain reasonable price for local products.
On the flip side of that, getting away from the heavier-handed tactics, I think that educational pieces could help, and the provincial government in the last few years has certainly come a long way in helping the agricultural community educate consumers as to the importance and the safety of a local food supply, with programs such as Select Nova Scotia, which some of you might be familiar with.
And I think it was mentioned in the previous panel, in the questioning, that there has been a movement toward a “Brand Atlantic” type of approach, which would help that whole piece go forward on a more Maritimes, unified basis.
Ultimately, for me it comes down to the profitability, and other things will look after themselves.
The other thing is research is extremely important, local research. A local bug doesn't care what the climatic conditions are in B.C. or Ontario or Quebec. They live and they do their damage based on what the conditions are here. A variety of apples doesn't care what conditions are in another part of the country. They grow and they have the quality that the environment here gives them. So local research is extremely important.
I'm getting short on time, so if I think of anything else, I'll put it out in the question and answer period after. Thank you very much.