Evidence of meeting #35 for Agriculture and Agri-Food in the 41st Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was waste.
A recording is available from Parliament.
President, Prairie Gleaners Society
It's strictly through donations. Not only do our volunteers give of their time, but they open up their wallets as well. We are a charitable organization, and of course through this work, we can issue tax receipts for any donations we receive.
Liberal
Mark Eyking Liberal Sydney—Victoria, NS
The Horn of Africa, for instance, is often plagued with problems with drought. Is it feasible if they needed the food? Say they needed a couple of containers of food, would the governments pay for the transportation? You mentioned the Philippines.
Can you give us an example of how that works on the international scene? Who pays before it leaves your door? Somebody has to pay a shipper of some sort. How does that work in getting it distributed in these areas? Can you give kind of a snapshot of the situation?
President, Prairie Gleaners Society
Yes. Think of organizations like the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, the Mennonite Central Committee, World Vision; those are some of the bigger ones. We operate with smaller ones as well. They're on the ground in those countries throughout the world helping with relief and aid. They pay for the transportation of this product to get over there. We have used a number of different means.
In 2010 there was a major flood in Pakistan. I made arrangements with Air Canada and Pakistan International Airlines to fly our product over there in very short order at no cost. Whatever means it takes we'll do what we can. We find there are many different ways that come together at times, people responding in times of need.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Thank you very much, Mr. Eyking.
We'll now go to Mr. Lemieux, for five minutes, please.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Could you remind me what your source of supply is for these foods? You mentioned packers. Where do you get most of the food you're processing and sending overseas?
President, Prairie Gleaners Society
Packers are where the vegetables are packaged for market distribution. Large farms, and not just large farms, even small farms; we'll take whatever they have. Perhaps there's some hail damage to a crop. A farmer recently dropped off about 100 bushels of peas he had left over. He had finished seeding and rather than put them back in his bin—it was only 100 bushels—he brought them to us to add to our.... It's means like that, wherever it's grown, wherever people are aware of us, and whatever they have that they can contribute, we'll receive, small and large amounts.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
When you pick a particular country and you're making a shipment to that country, how do you determine in that country who the recipients of this food will be, and how do you transport it to them?
President, Prairie Gleaners Society
We don't provide the transportation ourselves. The aid organization, such as World Vision or Canadian Foodgrains Bank, will be responsible for the transportation and the distribution in the overseas country.
I'm sorry, what was the first part of your question?
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
It was how you determine who the recipients are, but I guess you're probably determining the recipients through these other organizations.
President, Prairie Gleaners Society
That's correct. They put the request in to us, and it's usually wherever there's a major natural disaster in the world. That's not always the case, but usually that's where the bulk of our product has gone.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Right.
Perhaps you would remind me how many people are involved in this effort. Are they considered to be employees, or are they all volunteers? How big an organization is this?
President, Prairie Gleaners Society
Each of our gleaner facilities would have one employee. You need somebody to be there and be responsible. Other than that, it's all volunteer.
Conservative
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
That's very good. That's an excellent effort. I think we all greatly appreciate the input of volunteers to making worthwhile causes such as this actually come to life and be sustainable.
Thank you for your presentation today.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
I'm going to turn to Madam Raynault. If you want to take up the minute or two that are left, please go ahead.
NDP
Francine Raynault NDP Joliette, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Smith, thank you for joining us this afternoon.
According to our documents, food waste amounts to billions of dollars. Although not everyone benefits from your efforts and those of your volunteers, I still want to congratulate you on the work you are doing to avoid all this food ending up in the garbage bin without anyone being able to use it.
For competitive reasons, traditional grocery chains have come together to save money. Does all that waste have a positive or a negative effect on agricultural producers, processors and consumers in terms of food quality? Consumers are not the only ones responsible for that waste. Producers and food chains also play their part. What should be done to avoid all the waste?
Of course, food is distributed to people in need, but do you really think something else could be done to avoid wasting all this food? Any food that ends up in the garbage bin represents money wasted by consumers, processors and grocery stores.
President, Prairie Gleaners Society
You're absolutely right.
There's a huge cost not only to the resources of all that goes into the farming, packaging, and transportation. I think the committee is well aware of all those problems and will certainly find out through other presenters.
I'm not sure I have the answer as to how to prevent damage to vegetables, or as to why consumers.... You go into a grocery store and you watch us as consumers and we'll pick up a tomato and look at it, and if there's a blemish, or an imperfection on it, we'll set it aside and take the one that's perfect and nice looking. Grocery stores know that and we have that choice in this country.
I know that growers and packers struggle to find ways to bring value to what isn't acceptable to us standard-wise, value-added product, such as sauces or juices, and these sorts of things.
The message I hear from the ones that we partner with is the market is saturated and there doesn't seem to be room, and we can only consume so much in this country. It's nice that we have such an abundance. The unfortunate thing is there's such an inequity in the world. There's a distribution problem if you like, where we have so much and other places have so little.
I don't know quite how to fix that one other than we'll do our best, and hopefully, there are other methods and strategies that can be put into play.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Bev Shipley
Thank you very much, Mr. Smith.
Our time has run out as the bells are ringing and we will be having votes. To committee members, thank you very much.
Mr. Smith, it's an intriguing and very interesting project and program that you have. It really goes to show the effects that we could have from the things which the majority of us will set aside because of their imperfections, and yet, will meet an incredible need and demand out there, whether it's domestic or foreign aid.
With that, we thank you very much for what you do and for the leadership that you're showing out in Medicine Hat.
The meeting is adjourned.