The problem I have in my region—and I'm going back to the example of where I'm at—is that two farmers could feed the community, no problem. And we have maybe 200 or 300 farmers. You need to find a market for those goods, so exports are very important. We need to have that valve to release the products somewhere; otherwise those farmers won't be there.
When I look at farmers' markets...I don't argue that they are growing in demand. There is one in downtown Prince Albert, and I know the community loves it. People come out every Saturday morning, and it actually rejuvenates the downtown core of Prince Albert.
In Saskatchewan we have so many producers of similar products that they just need to have a better venue or more options of venues to go to. It would be nice to have something outside of the Loblaws and Safeways, and go through that process to cut out that supposed middleman.
The other concern I want to talk about is regulation. When this food is being produced locally you assume that the farmer is presenting the product to the market in a safe manner. Do you have any checks and balances to ensure that what's packaged or being claimed to be sold is actually what's in it?