Thank you, Chair. Thank you to all the witnesses.
I'll be splitting my time with Ms. Taylor Roy
. I'm going to direct my questions to Jen Pfenning of the National Farmers Union, because it's an honour to speak in this committee to a farmer who lives 15 minutes down the road from me in Kitchener-Conestoga. We've had many conversations on your back porch and at the kitchen table.
You mentioned in your statement off the top that class 1 and 2 farmland must be protected and reserved for farmers to grow food. Can you expand on the importance of keeping this farmland for us to have that local food?
I understand that we're losing 319 acres of farmland every day in Ontario. What can we do to keep those small and medium-sized family farms like yours in our communities? What measures can we take to protect farmland, and how can all levels of government work together?