Thanks, Wayne.
First of all, those from AgriRecovery have limited experience in our industry, other than looking at it from a foreign animal disease perspective. When individual producers or the Pork Council approached the government and said that circovirus was a disease--a non-economic issue--and that there should be money here, the government did come forward with some money to pay for vaccines. The bureaucracy stepped forward, and we got an emergency release on vaccines out of Europe. But in my opinion, at the end of the day, the devastation was such that there should have been a payout under AgriRecovery, and I think all the provinces that were affected would have supported that.
Instead we were told, “Wait for the AgriStability money; that will help. Wait for your AgriInvest cheque; that will help. Wait for these other programs to kick in, and they will help.” At the end of the day, we took it with a grain of salt and said we'd do that. But the knife in the heart came this spring when the western guys needed money, and they got it before they had to jump through any of the hoops. So it appeared the grain industry was held in a higher regard than was the livestock industry in this country--and let's be honest here, it always has been, no matter who has been in government.
You asked the question about FCC. I was speaking with a gentleman this morning on the phone and he put forward what I've been hearing in Ontario, which is that the definition of insanity is being reinforced almost on a weekly basis. I have to be careful here, because I am in farm debt mediation myself and I can't use anything from my own perspective--that's not allowed--so I have to go by what I've been told.
Wayne, you know Mr. Bartels. You've talked to him down in southern Ontario. I was talking to a gentleman this morning in eastern Canada. Last week I talked to people in the western provinces. Basically what we're looking at is that for hog farms...as long as the building on them is less than five or eight years old, the farms are going for land value.
The definition of insanity is to continue to do what you've always done and expect a different result. What we see happening is that farmers are managing through family. In one gentleman's case, I know his church has come to the rescue and offered him enough money to buy his farm back from Farm Credit at land value. He is refusing to take that. They want more money than what an accredited appraiser has offered as an opinion of the value of the property. So this young gentleman and his family will soon be evicted--I don't like to use that word--and yet the offer was there on the table. In that case we'll see Farm Credit having to carry this farm all winter. There are going to be animal welfare issues to deal with.
If the dollars are there for what the marketplace is paying, why are we testing the market with every single case? That would be my question. Why are we testing the market? The market will need to be tested at some point in time, but we don't need to test the market every single time. That's the definition of insanity.