Agriculture committee  I think government should be making expenditures where they'll create the best long-run return, and I think some of those are in public research. The research done by Julian Alston and others shows positive returns annually of 20% or more—often way more. Those are where the expenditures should be made.

Agriculture committee  And also live within your means. Producers are contributing. There are check-off funds being set up. Years ago, I was appointed by Grant Devine, when he was premier, to be on the Natural Products Marketing Council. It went around with producers and explained to them how they set up a check-off, which now forms the basis of SaskCanola, Sask Pulse.

Agriculture committee  I'm not a plant breeder. I guess I would say that the rules you have around research and who's going to benefit might change the direction of what you look for. For example, if you're working for a chemical company and they say “Fight wild oats”, what do you want? You want to be able to spray it when it's this big to this big: you want a wider window.

Agriculture committee  That's a bit of a tough question. You can read in some of the media about Chinese investors who go into Africa or Brazil, buy the land, and set up the entire infrastructure to move the product that's produced right out to the ports and back home to China. Now, the amount being bought I don't think threatens it like that right now, but let's face it, some people would argue, “Hey, it's my land.

Agriculture committee  No, I don't believe ending the Canadian Wheat Board guarantees the financial security for farmers. I think world markets will still go up and down in prices. Governments may still change policy. Even the ethanol mandate in the U.S. was up for debate. If they quit subsidizing or using ethanol, it would have an impact on world grain markets.

Agriculture committee  With respect to R and D, yes, it's important to spend money there. We talked about research into plant breeding and other kinds of things. If the government is saving money in terms of their risk management programs and the BRM reduction, if they're really interested in agriculture, much more should have been put back into public research, because some things just won't get done in the private sector.

Agriculture committee  Short lines are being used. Some of the farmers have gotten together, and they are using their short line and they are using the Wheat Board and shipping grain out directly. I haven't followed each short line very closely. I know some of them are still being used. I'll pass it over to Stewart to round it out.

Agriculture committee  It hasn't been a focus of what I do.

Agriculture committee  As economists, we do talk about gains from trade and how, if you can move products efficiently and do what you're best at, there are gains. We have a host of historical movements of products, including in supply managed products and other things. Sometimes there are bits of inhibitors.

Agriculture committee  I don't have a lot to add because I think he handled it very well, but I will comment on what Randy said with respect to prices. Prices are positive because of the U.S. drought, because of their ethanol program, and because of other things. It's independent of what happened. If he wants to know about other people who have received good prices under the Wheat Board fixed price contract, some people I know got over $15 and approaching $20 a bushel under the Wheat Board system when they used a basis contract and followed futures.

Agriculture committee  Do I get any opportunity to respond?

Agriculture committee  One is public research to make sure you improve your yields and your varieties and those kinds of things. The other thing is that you need to keep a healthy farm sector to make sure it can withstand some of vagaries that do occur with the weather and world markets.

Agriculture committee  Sorry, could you speak a little louder, because I have one hearing aid.

Agriculture committee  Okay, I'll speak louder.

Agriculture committee  Right. We want to be productive. We want to be innovative. We want to adapt. We may want to do it across all components of the supply chain, including plant breeding. But I think it's wrong to neglect that there are and have been major gains in plant breeding from the public sector and they are shared significantly differently.