Evidence of meeting #5 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was agricultural.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Representative, P.E.I. Health Coalition
It will be market-driven, because people will want that kind of food. It's not just for those who can afford it; we're looking for a policy on food sovereignty for the province that will give everyone equal access to good, safe food, regardless of the money in his or her pocket. We're in a huge position to do that on Prince Edward Island, as well as to meet the demands of the market.
Mary, go ahead.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Larry Miller
No, your time has expired, Mr. Eyking. But you can come back to it.
Mr. Zimmer.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
I want to follow up on my colleague Ben Lobb's question to you earlier. You mentioned car parts and different things like that as a good story, and I wanted you to expand on that and to explain what you meant.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Genome Prairie
For automobile replacement parts, headrests, and those sorts of things, fibres from crops such as flax and hemp make excellent biocomposites that are durable, light, and environmentally friendly. Ontario has a partnership with the National Research Council and the automobile manufacturing groups to look at how we can develop and use more of these.
The Ontario Agri-Food Technologies Incorporated group is strongly promoting the use of these natural-fibre products in making everything from storage boxes to automobile parts.
The use of vegetable oils to make polyurethane foams for headrests, dashboards, and so forth is another big area. There's a large company in Ontario that's looking at using these natural products.
Of course, polymers and coating agents produced from oils, either from linseed or rapeseed, have long been used as bio-renewable resources, and there's growing interest in revisiting these resources and expanding their use.
Flax or linseed oil is used in many places for driveway coatings. In paints, there's a special flax-derived product that prevents graffiti artists from spraying on walls.
So there is a wide range of interesting, environmental products and many provinces are actively involved. Certainly, Manitoba and Ontario are actively involved in this area.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
I have a question for Mary Boyd and Leo Broderick.
I want to know a little more about your association, the P.E.I. Health Coalition, and if you're affiliated with any bigger associations in Canada.
Representative, P.E.I. Health Coalition
As the P.E.I. Health Coalition, we're a coalition of many groups, including community, union, and health organizations. For instance, we are part of the Canadian Health Coalition.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Are you also affiliated with a union in Canada?
Representative, P.E.I. Health Coalition
At the local level we are, with the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and CUPE, the provincial union of workers, the federation of labour, and the nurses' union.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
We did some quick research and I noticed an affiliation with the Canadian Autoworkers Union. You failed to mention that.
Representative, P.E.I. Health Coalition
We don't have a direct affiliation with them in P.E.I., because it is a small group on the island, but maybe we'll look into having more of an affiliation with them.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Actually, I just Googled it and what came up was the Canadian Autoworkers Union web page with your names on it. So I guess you are affiliated with them and you just didn't know it.
Representative, P.E.I. Health Coalition
We're affiliated with them.
I'm with the Council of Canadians.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
Wilfred, you mentioned there are a lot of good ideas coming on stream. Are there any examples of ideas that are already being used in the industry, in car parts, for instance? Is there something that's being used today?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Genome Prairie
With replacement parts and in the area of fuels, there are companies that are manufacturing and selling oilseed products as asphalt-removing agents. There's a company called Milligan Bio-Tech in Saskatchewan that uses low-grade frozen canola seed to make these products. They have penetrating or rust-removing oil. That's one example where this is already actively in play.
Conservative
Bob Zimmer Conservative Prince George—Peace River, BC
I think those are good stories that we like to hear about for expanding those markets for agriculture. Thank you.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Genome Prairie
I might add that science and its development are very important. It goes back to the Green Revolution when people felt India would need to be abandoned and that hundreds of millions of people were going to starve. But in fact, science did a major positive thing for society by developing new higher yielding crops. We need to consider that the GM crops there are tested and safe. We should be careful to remember that there are only three genetically modified crops in Canada and that they are safe. They have been grown for close to 20 years in many cases.
One of the best studies is what the canola producers themselves did in Western Canada by looking at the value of this technology. It resulted in saving a lot of fuel. The better crop rotation resulted in greatly reduced erosion. Capacity yields and income for farmers increased. The farmers in Western Canada were never forced to grow a GM canola; they selected it very quickly because it provided a benefit for them.
We need to be very careful when we make statements about these things being unsafe. They are safe. We need to make every effort for coexistence. I agree that we certainly want to put the best tools in place and that organic and conventional and other crops can coexist. We have a wonderful pulse industry that has no GM products at all. I'm not sure that making a jurisdiction GM-free is logical, because then you'd have to eliminate insulin and cheese, as they are GM products.
Those are just some of my thoughts.
Conservative
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
My question is for Ms. Boyd and Mr. Broderick.
In a market where genetically engineered crops are becoming more and more common, what place should organic farming have in Growing Forward 2? In other words, what policies should we promote for the safety of organic crops, which are more and more in demand, especially in rural regions? What types of programs should we push for?
Representative, P.E.I. Health Coalition
We need to put in place support and incentives for farmers to be able to enter agriculture and do organic farming. This is very important.
Where I live on Prince Edward Island, I'm surrounded by organic farms. They're small organic farms, mostly producing soybeans. People around there are gardening organically as well. It's amazing. At this time of the year when the crops are getting closed to being ripe, these farmers don't have to go looking for markets. They are being sought out for their crops. There's a big demand out there for organic crops, and consumers would take organic food any day.
The problem is that it's a struggle for the organic farmers. Their food prices tend to be on the higher side because they don't get enough help to grow it. To change that agricultural paradigm in that way, incentives and support are very important at this point. There is a great interest out there among the public. It's time to take advantage of that and to really supply the consumers with what they want.
Although our friend here has said that GM crops are safe, I beg to differ. They have never been proven safe, and many a good scientist will tell you that. There are a lot of uncertainties, a lot of risks. I don't think we should mislead Canadians into thinking that's not the case.
Representative, P.E.I. Health Coalition
At both at the federal and provincial levels, we need a huge financial investment in a transition away from industrial agriculture—we have heavy industrial agriculture in the province and other parts of the country—to more natural organic agriculture.
I would say that what we have now in this country are agricultural positions that are unsustainable in the future, particularly in Prince Edward Island, where we depend totally on groundwater. In terms of its groundwater, much of Prince Edward Island is contaminated by chemical fertilizers and nitrates. In fact, there are hundreds and hundreds of people...and 50% of the islanders still receive water from individual wells. Many cannot use or drink their water. In fact, some don't even want to feed it to their animals.
In terms of the sustainability of industrial agriculture in Canada and around the world, there is very little future. Industrial agriculture is highly controlled by corporations. I think elected politicians need to step back and remove themselves from the influence of this huge corporate lobby. That's what we need to do.
In Prince Edward Island, our dream is that we have totally natural organic agriculture. We need policies that will transition farming to that, instead of simply giving lip service and talking occasionally about a few dollars going to it. There isn't sufficient funding for a move to organic farming in this country, in western Canada, Ontario, and the east. Particularly in areas like Prince Edward Island, there is no future for agriculture in the long term if we stick to more chemical fertilizers, more pesticides, more inputs. The lack of fossil fuels may take care of that, but organic agriculture is the future.
NDP
Jean Rousseau NDP Compton—Stanstead, QC
I have a quick question for Mr. Keller.
Do you think that both of these types of agriculture, the industrialized and more organic agriculture, could co-exist in Canada?
President and Chief Executive Officer, Genome Prairie
I think they can co-exist. We will need to develop research procedures and develop the knowledge and technologies to allow them to co-exist. Professor Van Acker talked about a major conference in Vancouver on co-existence. There will be a very good dialogue on that whole issue.
There are analytical techniques that can be used to identify low level presence. We need to work to have low level presence accepted, because through shipping or transportation, things will always get intermingled, even different organic strains. It is just a fact of life. And so we need to support what is happening with Agriculture Canada and the drive internationally for low level tolerance and levels of presence of other components that cause no harm, and should allow trade and transportation of these products. That would certainly be one big step toward healthy co-existence.
