Thank you.
I'm going to be referring specifically to the deck that was passed around. I'm going to take you through it. There are a number of photos and some facts in there. I'll be referring to that continuously as I go through, so I will ask people to follow along with me.
Thank you very much, on behalf of the Grain Growers, for the invitation to be here to talk a bit about TPP. I looked at the witnesses you were calling and there are some people giving you lots of stats and arguments for and against, and I thought I would to take a little different tack today. I'm going to back it right back down to the farm gate and why this is important for farmers and how we farm today in Canada.
The Grain Growers of Canada represents over 50,000 producers. We grow wheat, durum, barley, oats, corn, soybeans, lentils, canola, peas, rye and triticale. Those are the commodity associations that directly belong to the Grain Growers of Canada.
We're excited about a large regional deal because, as Peter talked about, you can make more gains than you can in a simple bilateral deal.
Coming back to the farm gate, in the next picture here you see a field full of weeds. This is a field of corn and it's full of weeds. The reason I show this to you is that this is how it happens if you plant some crop in the ground in Canada. Whether you're in Quebec, Prince Edward Island, or in the Prairies, a lot of weeds will come up like this. It will choke out the crop. It takes away the nutrients and takes away the water and your yield suffers a lot.