Thank you very much.
Certainly it is something that's a huge concern, I think particularly to our sector, but it's not unique to horticulture. In some respects it's evolution, but how do we fend that off? Regardless of whatever happens in evolution, everybody is still going to have to eat. Once some of that land is gone into other things, it's not ever going to be brought back into agriculture production.
I think it's a number of things. Part of it is coming through diversification that we're seeing in what some producers are doing in terms of looking at other things: mixing up crops, other enterprises, looking at innovation, the different ways of producing crops. In 2008, 45% of processed foods launched contained health and nutrition messaging. It was 31% in 2002, so in 2011 going into 2012, I would expect that it's increased again.
What are the opportunities for horticulture in particular in the area of health? I think we have some opportunities, whether it's through processed items or medicinals, or just in fresh consumption that perhaps some other sectors don't have. Technology to help ease how the crops are produced...I don't want to say it's burdensome. It can be complicated. As I mentioned earlier, the very high cost of production...that definitely is unique to horticulture. How do we make for a better lifestyle and a better level of profitability on a consistent basis? Some of those things....
We've lost so much of our processing capacity in this country. That's not insignificant and that's not been something very positive for the industry. There's a whole host of reasons as to why that has happened, and that's a whole debate for another time and place.