Mr. Chair, thank you for inviting us to join you this afternoon to provide you with an overview of the agriculture and agri-food sector in this country. We have just circulated a document.
I'm going to turn to Kara and Marco to walk you through that very quickly, to allow as much time as possible for questions.
Before I turn the floor over to them, though, I would simply begin by acknowledging that we're well aware that 2019, and indeed, the early weeks of 2020 have been a difficult time for many in the agriculture industry for many reasons, ranging from uncertainty and volatility in global markets to unusual and extreme weather events, to disruptions in the country's transport system.
Notwithstanding those very real near-term challenges, when we, and many in the industry and many independent analysts, look to the medium and longer term, we are very excited about the potential of this sector to sustainably contribute to growth in the Canadian economy. When we look at projections for growth in global population, growing global wealth and what that will mean for food demand in the years and decades ahead, we share the view that these create very unique opportunities for a country with Canada's knowledge in this sector, as well as our endowment of resources such as land and water.
With that, perhaps, I will invite Kara to very quickly walk you through the first few slides of the deck.