Yes, Mr. Chair. I'll go first.
I think we've distributed our opening remarks, so I won't read them out to you, but I do want to cover some key points.
As you know, the agricultural jurisdiction is shared federally and provincially. In 2003, we established the first sort of national policy framework that brought the federal government together with provincial and territorial governments to align our programming and policies to make sure that we're better serving the agricultural sector.
The agricultural policy framework initially focused on branding Canada as a leader in safe food and environmentally sustainable practices for food and agriculture. The subsequent policy framework, Growing Forward, which began in 2008 and will run out in 2013, extended that ambition, but added a great deal of flexibility for provinces to design programs that are locally relevant and effective. It also invested considerably more money in innovation, recognizing that the international landscape has changed.
We're just at the point now where we're starting our next policy framework. We began with consultations in May and June of this year. After some intense and creative brainstorming, we're naming it “Growing Forward 2”--for now. We've spent a great deal of time talking to leaders in the sector and others about what the world will look like in 2020, about what the opportunities and challenges will be looking out over the next 10 years, and in using that as a basis to design the next policy framework. I just want to talk a little about what we've been hearing.
On the demand side, the world looks like agriculture's oyster, because there is growing demand, both in terms of large population increases--mostly in countries like India, China, Brazil, Russia, and other areas--and in terms of income increases in those countries. For Canada, this means that there's an opportunity literally to feed millions of more people, given their higher disposable income. We know that consumption patterns change when incomes go up: there's a lot more dairy consumed and there's a lot more animal protein consumed. So there are opportunities for us in those areas, both on the growth side and on the income side.
There's also a considerably greater demand today for foods with specific attributes, namely mostly in the health areas, and we've seen major growth in crops like canola to feed a world that is hungry for healthy foods. There's a huge opportunity for foods with specific attributes.
On the supply side, of course, Canada is really well placed with its considerable arable land and water, which isn't the case in many other countries. China, for example, has surface water that in many cases is not even suitable for agricultural irrigation anymore. So Canada is well placed, both in terms of natural resources and technology and innovation.
Our farmers are amongst the most productive in the world and we think we'll be very well placed. Those in the sector are telling us that they're going to be very well placed to take advantage of changing consumption patterns and population growth that will be demanding more food.
The challenge for us, though, is that as populations grow there are competitors on the horizon. In Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Russia, if they get their act together and improve their yields, they can become significant competitors in grains and oilseeds. Brazil is already an emerging giant in agriculture. So we do have our challenges ahead of us, and our farmers, I think, are up to the challenge.
We do have to become more innovative. We do have to become more productive. Innovation, we think, is going to be key as we go into Growing Forward 2, and innovation in a number of senses. One of those is in the traditional sense of research and development, in providing our farmers new technologies and new crops, with better agronomic characteristics to improve yields, but also with characteristics that will improve the attractiveness of our crops for specific consumer demands, like health attributes.
We also see innovation applying in terms of business models. Globally, what we're seeing is a supply chain that's becoming more sophisticated, with global suppliers demanding greater performance on the environmental side and the food safety side. As those business models change, Canadian farmers will have to adapt to those more sophisticated supply chains, and we think we are ready to do that. So innovation is going to be quite key.
Among the other things we are hearing from the sector is that infrastructure is an important driver, both for innovation and for our attacking domestic and global markets. We look at infrastructure from a traditional point of view; in other words, you do have to move your product to market. You do need to have ports at railways and highways, but you also need to have the infrastructure in place for regulatory policy and the legal framework, and you need the human infrastructure in place, that is, people who are smart and entrepreneurial and ready to move. The sector is telling us that we need to focus on that part in GF2.
We're looking at attacking domestic and global markets. The committee won't be surprised to hear from me that we do see greater interest amongst consumers about where their food is grown and greater interest amongst consumers about getting access to local food and understanding their connection with local agriculture. There's a domestic market opportunity there for our farmers, as well as a global market.
In this day and age, with changing standards, demands from consumers, and demands from supply chain managers for sustainable agriculture, clearly the environmental performance of the sector is going to remain very important. We need a sector that is adaptable, able to respond to new market signals, and able to deliver what consumers and supply chain managers are asking for.
So where we're at right now is that we've done our first phase of consultations and we're going to move into the second phase.
The first phase of industry engagement was held in May and June 2010 with a series of national and regional workshops held across the country. Over 400 farm leaders and other key value chain stakeholders engaged with FPT governments on the long-term challenges and opportunities facing the sector. These engagement sessions were very productive and provided valuable insight into stakeholder views.
Phase 2 is scheduled in March 2011 and will be geared towards defining policy options and securing an endorsement on the proposed GF2 framework model. Phase 2 engagement will try to include the general public as well as various associations, opinion experts and issue experts.
Phase 3 will take place after an agreement in principle is announced by FPT ministers in summer 2011 and is tentatively scheduled for winter 2011.
For the last strategic framework component, we worked very closely with the departments and we intend to the same thing this time. We want to secure a very serious commitment from the sector toward the next strategic phase.
We have made a good start. We do need to undertake some significant engagement to refine the future directions for Growing Forward 2 and we intend to undertake that in the next year or so.