Agriculture Committee on Nov. 3rd, 2011

[Dr. Bruce Roberts]

I think there are challenges in certain areas of the production organization. For example, if you have something that's attractive to a large processor, it's going to get done. But if you have something that's more of a niche product, it's much more difficult to find those funds to take it to market. A lot of the issues around functional foods...that's not a big market yet. It has potential, but not yet, so how do we make it a big market? From what we've seen, that's one of the biggest challenges. If it's something they can jump on and sell to everybody right away, it's going to get done. If it's something where there's a lead time to get to that critical mass of profitability, then there's a real gap there.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Frank Valeriote]

Okay.

Ms. Raynault.

[Francine Raynault, NDP, Joliette, QC]

Thank you.

My question is for Mr. Lintott.

Must we be concerned that climate change will have an impact on the amount of arable land available for forage production? You must certainly have done research on this.

[Jim Lintott]

The effect of climate change is mostly spoken of in terms of temperature, but when it comes to the forage industry, the effect of climate change will have effects on traditional rainfall patterns. How we deal with those changes is really interesting.

The Palliser Triangle of western Canada was considered to be of no agronomic value when it was first surveyed. We've proven that to be sometimes true, but not always true. A lot of that has been through innovative farming practices. There are a lot of good reasons to believe that we have the science and the brain power needed to adapt technologies from environments further south of us to our range land and forage lands, to keep them productive and maybe even enhance their productivity if there's an economic return on it.

One of the most important things I want to say today is that we have a marketplace in agriculture right now where almost everything we produce on the farm is going to turn a dollar--a profitable dollar--for that farmer. Every commodity now is at or near record high dollar values. Yes, input costs have gone up, but this is the time to bring forward innovative thinking and new ideas, because the farm now has potential to invest some of its new-found profits back into moving those ideas onto the farm and seeing those results. So this is a very important time not to break stride. We must move forward rapidly. This might only be a 10- or 15-year cycle, but we know that cycle is going to stay there for a long time. It is driven by high energy costs and a very strong population growth that now has money for food. We need to move now. We cannot break stride.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Frank Valeriote]

Are there any other questions?

Mr. Rousseau.

[Jean Rousseau, NDP, Compton—Stanstead, QC]

I have one comment on that.

Mr. Lintott, you have already nearly answered my question, but I would like to hear what the representatives of the two other organizations have to say in this regard.

What is the danger if we simply maintain the status quo with regard to financial investment in science and innovation? What is the greatest danger threatening us internationally, with regard to productivity and commercialization? What is the main danger if no new monies are invested in science and innovation?

[Andrea Brocklebank]

First of all, research and innovation also derive capacity and expertise from it. On the issues Travis spoke to around BSE, the expertise at the table was as critical as anything to explain and work with the WTO. So there is that side. If we don't attract expertise into those fields, we won't have the expertise when we need it. That is one of the outcomes of the current dynamic.

We're not attracting those people into these areas. When you have an issue you need it answered now, not five years from now when you have the research. We also have to be proactive in our research, and we've been lagging in that substantially. It's fine to allocate funding to forage, but if you don't have forage breeders to do the work, which is the case right now, it's pretty hard to get that.

Those are the types of dynamics we're dealing with now. We need that reinvigorated and longer-term commitment to attract the capacity and get the outcomes we're going to need 10 years from now--not three years ago.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Frank Valeriote]

Mr. Roberts.

[Dr. Bruce Roberts]

I had a conversation with a very knowledgeable and experienced researcher a while back. I posed that question to him: what happens if we stop doing research in Canada in the poultry industry?

He said we're probably okay for eight or 10 years. We can steal from other places, innovate, do some fancy stuff, but after that we'll hit the wall, especially with the changes that are going on all the time. We have to do our own research, because there are unique characteristics to our country that will catch up to us.

As Mr. Lintott said, this is the time; we need to be moving.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Frank Valeriote]

I imagine that climate adaptation is going to be major.

I'm assuming there are no more questions.

On behalf of all our committee members, I want to thank all the witnesses for coming and taking time out of your schedules. Your remarks and answers are going to contribute significantly to the discussion around the table when we're coming up with recommendations in a report we'll be making to the minister on the science and innovation section of Growing Forward 2.

Thank you so much.

The meeting is adjourned.