Mr. Speaker, Arnold Schmidt is a prairie farmer who has diversified into organic wheat production.
Mr. Schmidt has gone further than just growing organic grain for a niche market. He has developed sales for organic flour milled from his own grain. This is exactly the type of initiative that will bring agriculture out of the current income crisis caused by the disastrously low world prices for traditional crops.
Unfortunately, Mr. Schmidt cannot get an export permit for his organic flour from the Canadian Wheat Board. This is in spite of the fact that the Canadian Wheat Board provides no marketing services to him. This is wrong.
The government claims that it has introduced Bill C-25 in order to promote value added processing. What it refuses to understand is that the best way to promote diversification and value added processing is to get out of the way of entrepreneurs like Mr. Schmidt.
The Canadian Wheat Board minister is personally responsible for not helping organic farmers.