Minister Blackburn has put a very significant emphasis on youth and beginning farmers. Just last week, he held his National Future Farmers Network meeting to bring together youth leaders and beginning farm leaders from across the country. There's a number of issues, and this committee, having done all the work on beginning and young farmers, knows them very well, so I won't go over them.
But on the issue of education, I think it's unfortunate that the Canadian public doesn't recognize just how complex farming is. I think there's a perception that it's a fairly straightforward business. But a farmer has to be an entrepreneur, an accountant, a financial wizard, and a scientist and has to be able to work night and day. To be able do all of those things, education is a really important facet of achieving success, and the youth and beginning farmers have put quite an emphasis on this.
In Growing Forward, there are number of programs that are actually designed to improve agronomic skills and training, as well as business management skills and training. In our consultations leading up to Growing Forward 2, we are getting a significant amount of feedback about the need for these kinds of investments in skills, education, and training.