Aldo Leopold was a great figure to follow because he recognized the stewardship role.
The idea for our program came from Ian Wishart, who was a potato farmer in Manitoba at the time and who now sits as the environment minister of Manitoba.
His notion was that the farm can be a multi-functional place and that the farm can produce more than just food and fibre. It doesn't need to be at the exclusion of the food and fibre, but ecosystem services that are valuable to all Canadians, including those involving biodiversity and at-risk species and wetlands, are worth rewarding. If we don't look to the agricultural community and reward it for this, we will miss the biggest opportunity in Canada.
All of southern Canada where we live, work and play is managed and maintained by farmers. If we want to maximize the quality of our life and what we get from those farms, we need to look at them differently and consider rewarding them for the extra things that they produce over and above the food and fibre. I think that's where that comment comes from.