Thank you, Chair, and thank you, folks, for coming.
Did any of you not come from a farm family background? Kimberly.
The reason I ask is not so much what that means. I'm just always interested in talking to someone who decides to do this, young or not so young. I had this experience in southern Ontario, when I did a tour a couple of years ago, of talking to folks about young farmers. This woman put her hand up and said, “I don't think I'm qualified.” It turns out she'd become a farmer after having a career in the public service. She decided to farm, not on a hobby farm, but a farm. I don't want to give her age away, but she was certainly over 50. I had to then start rethinking folks who start farming as maybe being “new entrants” rather than always being young farmers. So I'm always interested in hearing what attracted you to it.
Here on the agriculture committee, those of us who are full time think it's great, but I'm always interested to hear from folks on what drew them to it, on what gave them the sense of “I think I'd like to go do that”.