Thank you, Mr. Chair. I appreciate that.
I want to quickly give thanks and appreciation for the IT support just when we got lost. I had a phone call from my team to make sure everything was all right. They are very thorough, and that allows us to be here in various parts of the country at the same time, so thank you to the IT department for making this happen.
Also, in both official languages, merci beaucoup to our translators for allowing me to talk to everybody at once.
I thank all the witnesses for being here, but I thank you especially, Mr. Campbell and Monsieur Caron. Please extend our thanks to your members. You have been dealing with the pandemic, dealing with droughts and dealing with flooding in British Columbia. We've heard about the blockades at some of Canada's critical border crossings, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, and all of these things, and yet still you persevere, and food is still on our tables. I want to thank your members on behalf of a grateful nation.
My friend and colleague, Mr. MacGregor, mentioned resiliency.
Monsieur Caron, you mentioned that support was needed to remain competitive, and that's one of the things we want to do. We've heard a lot on the supply chain. One thing I want to focus on now is managing food waste on farms. When you're the farmer who's growing the food, any product that goes to waste before it even reaches market is going to be bad for your bottom line. I'm confident that farmers are doing everything they can to ensure that as little as possible of the food grown is wasted. That is essential for our supply chains, but reducing food waste and getting more of the produce to market would be one of the best ways to improve profit margins. With study after study, we have seen how small profit margins can be for farmers.
What I'm looking to learn is this: Are there ways farmers can manage food waste on farms, and more importantly, are there ways we can support those measures, given those thin margins you're working with, as far as planning crops or harvesting goes?
Mr. Campbell, go ahead.