--but let me just tell you a little bit about me.
It has been my belief for many years that farming is the most noble profession practised by mankind since the beginning of time. I've been fortunate to spend my career in the food and agriculture sector. My passion is doing things that will enable farmers to be more productive and more profitable. I'm really delighted with the results so far, but I haven't finished yet.
Here's a little story about me. In 1980, two colleagues and I founded a company called Philom Bios, the purpose of which was to use natural soil-derived microbes to enhance crop productivity. We registered Canada's first biological herbicide. We commercialized the world's first phosphate inoculant, which increased phosphate uptake in plants and increased yield and crop quality. We also developed and marketed the world's first combination phosphate and nitrogen inoculant for pulse crops. The company was acquired by Novozymes three years ago, which continues now with the marketing--essentially globally--of these products and the improvement derivatives of them.
The point of all this is that the essence of our success was very simple. We had very powerful collaborative research and development arrangements with the National Research Council laboratories in Ottawa, Saskatoon, and P.E.I., and most especially with the research branch of Agriculture Canada. The bioherbicide was developed in collaboration with Dr. Mortensen and the research station in Regina, a research station that, shamefully, was closed some years ago. The phosphate inoculant was developed in collaboration with the Agriculture Canada research station in Lethbridge with Dr. Gusse, and the combination phosphate and nitrogen inoculant with the research station at Beaverlodge with Dr. Wendell Rice and his colleagues.
These were dynamic times, gentlemen, when the research branch was a leading linkage between science and the farmer. I've learned from contacts I have in the research branch that this has changed drastically in recent years. There is a great deal of frustration among scientists with changing business models and the continuing reduction in funding. The connection between the research branch and the farmer also has been eroded almost to the point of non-existence.
Some of you will remember the great delight of the annual field days that every research station had, and the interaction of farmers and researchers. Those days are gone. In your deliberations, Mr. Chairman, I would encourage you and your colleagues to give serious thought to restoring the research branch to its former glory. This is the 125th year of the foundation of the research branch, a wonderful time to rejuvenate this great Canadian organization.
That's the only negative thing I have to say, Mr. Chairman. I have some positive comments for your and your colleagues.
I think we're doing great things. An example is Genome Canada and its constituent provincial organizations, which are doing world-class leading-edge research in the field of genomics. It is powerful stuff.
One of the organizations you may know, NAFGEN, Natural Fibres for the Green Economy Network, is a network of collaborators from across the country. There are 54 researchers from 22 organizations developing, from a feedstock of flax and hemp--Canadian natural fibres--materials for the bioeconomy: energy, chemicals, and bioproducts. It is powerful stuff. It is a wonderful model for multiplying and synergizing individual researchers in one whole.
The wrap-up presentation for NAFGEN is next Monday here in Saskatoon. Unfortunately, the funding expires at the end of March, but there is a wealth of research-generated knowledge that is now poised for the next phase of development, closer and closer to the commercial world. You may give some thought to the funding and how we fund these multiple-participant research organizations.
We're doing very well on the value-added side. Some of you will remember your former colleague in the House of Commons, the Honourable Otto Lang. In the early 1970s, he was the spearhead behind the assessment that we were hewers of wood and drawers of water, and when were we going to start processing our agricultural commodities into more value-added food and feed products? He was the originator behind the POS Pilot Plant Corporation, now called POS Bio-Sciences, which today is a world leader in providing scale-up services for companies that want to take value-added processing of commodities from the top of the laboratory bench through the pilot plant scale to a commercial level. It is a wonderful example of foresight that came from the federal government at the time. It has paid dividends over 30 years and is doing so at a greater and greater rate.
Today we have two commercial operations using university-based research in this town. They're extracting protein from canola meal. One is concentrating on the human food market, the other on the animal feed market. It is powerful stuff.
I'm involved with a little company that has developed the world's first truly natural biopesticide for soil-borne pathogens. In fact, the reason I have to leave, Mr. Chairman, is that we are in the midst of fundraising between $3 million and $5 million. I have another presentation to make. If any members of this committee would like to have subscription agreements, I can supply them at their request.
There's something happening here that I must tell you and your colleagues about, Mr. Chairman. We've done presentations on this venture across the country from coast to coast. Most investors will understand oil and gas; very few understand the agricultural world, but there is a change occurring. There is an awareness of the potential economic as well as social benefits that are now coming up through the agricultural world. That bodes well for what we're doing here generally as a community in the biosciences, and for the future prospect of gaining capital to take these developments to the commercial sphere. That is a situation I have not ever seen before in my career in Canada. It is a very encouraging development.
We are blessed in this country with excellent research supports. The sustainable development technology program is excellent. There is IRAP, which we all know, and the Canadian agricultural adaptation program, and, of course, in town there is Ag-West Bio, which is a very powerful commercial supporter.
What can I offer you for opportunities to enhance our agriculture and agrifood innovation? Please give some real thought to the research branch. I urge you to do that.
The regulatory process is getting better. It used to rot my socks when farmers in North Dakota could get our new products three years before my Saskatchewan farmer customers could. It's getting better, but this lunacy of demanding efficacy data has to stop. Everybody loses, including society.
I encourage you to continue aggressive funding for strategic research consortia such as NAFGEN, and please think about the investment tax credit and the R and D tax credit, which is now 35%. This is great. Those two become exporters, but why does that not apply to field trials done outside Canada's borders? It's crazy.
Also, if we want to build our academic powers, let's increase 35% to, say, 55% for those companies that invest in collaborations with academic researchers, because that ties in with the elephant in the room, which is that we have a dire shortage of scientists looming in our country. We know we have a science-poor culture, and there's a history for that. If you had half an hour, I'd tell you why, but it's a fact.
Where are our agronomists is coming from? I'd urge you to think about that too. The largest landowners in this province are the aboriginal bands. How are we training aboriginal agronomists? Mr. Chairman, I urge you and your committee to think about how we address this void of scientific staff in the agricultural world.
These are my points. I appreciate the time, and I hope my points will be useful to you.
Thank you.