Thank you.
I can start, more or less, with what is looked upon as a historical perspective of agriculture in first nations. There are various studies around it, even in Canada, that show that agriculture in the western woodlands went back to about 900 AD. When you start looking at the contributions of first nations and indigenous people from the western hemisphere, today about 60% of all foods that are traded internationally originate in North America.
I often tell people to imagine Italian cuisine without tomatoes, or fish and chips without potatoes, or different varieties of corn or different other things. Those are foodstuffs that actually have their origins in the western hemisphere. Even today, 60% of all produce that's actually developed, grown and traded in the United States has its origins in the western hemisphere.
When we're looking at that from a historical perspective and how that actually fits in, one thing that is near and dear to us is the fact that, when you look at agriculture, agriculture is central to a lot of first nations cultures. One thing that's needed is looking at the definition of what agriculture actually is. If you look at it from a western perspective, it's basically opening the soil and opening the ground for produce and different other things. But in the western sense, agriculture takes various forms. What you see out in the east is what they call the planting of the “three sisters," which are corn, beans and squash. The uses of that were very well-thought-of in how they have the corn and the beans, which are a nitrogen fixer, going up on the corn stalk, and then the squash, the pumpkins, that actually provide seeds so you use less water. If you look at that, from an innovation perspective, that's basically part of that.
If you look at the Haudenosaunee today, you see that they have over 29 different varieties of corn that are actually grown from prior to contact. This doesn't include such things as tobacco and other types of products.
Going out west, there's often the assumption that agriculture only went so far north, the southern end of North Dakota, but they're having studies in Winnipeg where pollen from corn is actually being dug up in some of the archeological finds outside of Winnipeg. If you go further west, what we used was predominantly fire for agricultural purposes and production. Even for some of the waterborne uses of such things as wapato, an aquatic plant that grows in rivers, along riverways, there are sites that were prepared that go back 5,000 years. We also look at such things as innovations in aquaculture, which we also feel is a form of agriculture that's actually used, and some of these areas were 5,000 years old, clam beds on the west coast.
Agriculture is something that's not foreign to us. In a more contemporary sense, I myself come from a family that has about four generations who were farmers and ranchers. A lot of ours was dryland farming. It's no different from the turn of the century, when a lot of our forefathers were buying threshing machines and our whole community once was, basically, into vegetables: tomatoes and different types of crops that were sent to canneries in Kelowna. One of the things that happened was that we were able to compete, but only to a certain point. Around the 1950s and 1960s, irrigation was put into pipes and infrastructure off reserve, which we were not able to obtain, and that was basically the downfall of that industry.
When we're looking at the future of agriculture for first nations, it's incredible what the growth is. A recent study that I sent out, “Success and Sustainability” from the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business, shows that 50% of all agriculture produced by first nations in Canada goes for international trade.
The Blood reserve is trading no less than nine different kinds of agricultural produce to Japan for their Wagyu. Wagyu is beef that is grown in Japan. Osoyoos is the largest producer of grapes in all of Canada, and in fact the largest employer other than the south Okanagan. With their Nk'Mip winery, they produces wines that are actually having international recognition. It's the same thing on a private scale, where individuals are starting to move into that area. We have an individual who's an ex-chief out of Kelowna who is not only getting into wineries with Indigenous World Winery, but also going into distilleries and cider production.
These are all initiatives that are actually open. Out on Vancouver Island, chief Gordon Planes is using solar energy for greenhouse production. He's growing wasabi and also looking at shellfish production for international trade. Going east, in some of the areas in Ontario, you have wild rice, and others are using syrups and looking at different types of markets. That's considerable. If you go out towards the east, there was a certain purchase recently where the Annapolis Valley First Nation bought a farm. This farm is actually used for that type of initiative.
When we're looking at the future of agriculture, it's quite bright. As first nations, we look at the opportunity not in a domestic nature inside of Canada. We believe our future in agriculture exists in the international markets, which aren't subject to such things as quotas where we, as first nations, would have to buy into a quota and then look at the purchase of farms, at operations and maintenance, and compete with somebody who's already made those investments.
That's seven minutes.