Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses for joining us today.
Mr. Gooch, earlier, you mentioned that vegetables were being wasted. People are wasting vegetables at home because they do not know how to preserve them. Someone said earlier that providing information in schools or on labels would help us avoid all that wasting of food. The waste rate of 30% works out to a lot of food.
Asparagus is currently in season in Quebec, and probably across Canada. Who knows how to preserve fresh asparagus? Should it be put in the fridge as it is? Should its bottom part be immersed in water, so that it would stay fresh longer?
I think that starting by educating children on these issues and then educating parents would be a very good idea. Children will tell their parents how to preserve vegetables like potatoes. I think that would be very important.
You also talked about consistency in expiry date labelling, and I agree with you. It is true that this is not always easy. The expiry date does not mean the yogurt will go bad three or four days later. However, people tend to throw it out because they are afraid of getting sick.
All of us probably do some grocery shopping. In our free time, we go to the grocery store and see vegetables. I have been an agricultural producer in the past, and I knew that, when I delivered vegetables, asparagus and tomatoes had to be very fresh. However, those that are a bit less fresh are not necessarily sent to the cannery and are still edible as such. A tomato is still good even if it does not have the little seal of approval someone may want.
What is your take on all this food being wasted? Should companies be forced to can vegetables that are still good, so that they would last longer and so that people could also eat them at a better price? What do you think about that?