My daughter phoned me. She was so distraught, and I said, “Just tell her that Canada is a wonderful blend of every culture and we do everything well.”
I'm not worried about competing with the European cheese. I've eaten some terrible cheese in France, and I've eaten some wonderful cheese in Switzerland even though the Swiss need to understand that cheddar is a wonderful cheese. It really is. In the fall, when you really want a McIntosh apple and a piece of cheddar, and you live in Europe, you can't get it. You really want it, but they ask, “Why would you want that?” Cheddar is a wonderful thing.
So I think it's time that Europeans found out about us. I also think that expanding the market in this way is one way to allow agricultural families to stay on the farm, because it is difficult. We're now in the process of transitioning our farm to one of our daughters and her husband—she's just made the big decision this week to give notice at her real job—and we feel confident that we can expand the business and also that we have consumers who want good-quality local food.
Forging relationships with local communities and helping to build the local community, that's what we do. I have only eight staff in my little creamery. We process about 1,500 litres of milk a day. We could say that's seven days a week. That's cow and goat; we added both because there's consumer demand, which is good for us. We can add what the consumer wants. We can look at ways of expanding that. I think that will guarantee the grandchildren on the farm, and I think this can be a century family farm again one day.
As far as agricultural products go, I really want to support the.... I always say that if we're getting all our food from China, or Mexico, or wherever, and one day there's a political crisis, or a geographical, geological, or whatever crisis, can Canadians, because of that and because of economics, end up starving when we can produce everything we need and the world needs?
I grew up on the Prairies, like I said. I remember in the sixties seeing pictures of those mounds of wheat on the docks in India—remember that?—and that was Canadian wheat. We were so proud to feed the world, and now.... Sorry. I love being a Canadian farmer. I think we are grassroots. I think what we have to do and offer and the fact that we have the opportunity to expand our markets....
We're only provincially licensed at this point in time, but I think that's something the federal government can work on: taking down those barriers between provinces. We have demand for our cheese all across Canada, so let's do it.