Yes, indeed it is. It actually was the very first job I ever had as a youngster, cutting asparagus, so that's why I know we don't pick it, we cut it. That was up by Collingwood, just outside Nottawa, which a lot of folks don't know about, up in Nottawasaga.
But let me get back to where you just finished, when you were talking about the standards seeming to evaporate for the retailer when they see the product diminishing on the shelves, in the sense that they need to have something there to fill that shelf to ensure that consumers coming through their doors can avail themselves of the product.
If consumers knew that it was substandard--and that's my word--from the perspective of what we're asking you and other farmers to do at the farm, to come to a certain level of standard, then to simply put product on the shelf.... It seems to me that's something we ought to be telling folks. Or at the very least, perhaps we should have a standard that's identical, and if we're not able to ensure it at the farm gate, perhaps we can ensure it when it reaches our border, before it comes in.
I wonder what your thoughts are around that. I'm a great believer in locally grown produce, and I'm a great believer in markets. And by that I mean the farm market and the farm gate, where I actually buy most of my produce in the growing season. I live rurally and I'm fortunate to have four markets in my area wheret I can go on different nights, which is fabulous for me and fabulous for those farmers, who enjoy retailing their product at that point.
So that sense of standard is really what I'm looking at--how our farmers, through your association, view that. Do they see it as being part of the process, or is it unfair, are they annoyed? How do they feel about it?