Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise in the House on behalf of hundreds of people from Drummond who signed a petition calling on the government to respect the rights of small family farms to store, trade and use seed.
The petitioners are calling on the House of Commons to adopt international aid policies that support small farmers, and especially women, and recognize their vital role in the struggle against hunger and poverty, to ensure that Canada's policies and programs are developed in consultation with small farmers and that those policies protect the rights of small farmers in the global south to save, use and freely trade their seed.