I can speak a little bit about farm women and recognition of their roles.
This is very well illustrated in the creation of the agricultural policy framework. Even though governments now have a mandate to look at gender balance in trying to develop agricultural policy, they were very challenged in getting any input from women. Even though women play a tremendous role today in the economic elements of farming--doing the paperwork and the books--they have to deal with any additional paperwork that comes to the farm.
As we develop policy we need to do a much better job of talking to women on farms. They have a little different perspective on the role of farming. The whole business of women not being recognized for their roles has been going on for decades. I'm not really well versed in the whole pension debate, but I think that has come up here. Farm women need some recognition for their roles over the long term on the farm, and pensions would be one way to do that.
The other thing I have a bit of experience in hearing about is the income support program that was introduced for the family farm. In the past year, if you had revenues of $50,000 you could qualify for some support in a low-income situation. This was beneficial. I heard positive reports on the program, and families found it useful. It was sort of a guaranteed income. The problem this year is that they're not allowing any new families to become part of it, so there are people who are going to miss out on that one.
Agriculture is a very volatile business. If we want to have farmers we need to have agriculture.