Agriculture committee  You mean if we export into another country?

Agriculture committee  Part of the problem there is that we've been told by CFIA that unless we have mandatory on-farm food safety programs, we cannot set standards at the border. That's why we're advocating doing it through communication and doing it through branding Canada in Canada and making our co

Agriculture committee  I did a radio interview a while ago, and the interviewer said, “Why should we continue to invest in agriculture if our farmers aren't competitive?” I said the problem isn't that our farmers aren't competitive. We have some of the most competitive farmers in the world. The problem

Agriculture committee  The catastrophic disaster component to the suite of programs is something we look at exactly as you described. If you have an AI breakout or a BSE breakout, how can we make sure the program responds faster, how can we make sure the program responds to rebuilding an infrastructure

Agriculture committee  The government has told us quite often that they support supply management. The minister has told us quite often that he supports developing a policy environment within which farmers can be more successful. He said that about the biofuel industry. I believe he's also a firm propo

Agriculture committee  Canadian farmers are very concerned about what you've just talked about, especially the horticulture industry. That's why we would like to identify Canadian products, so the Canadian consumers, given some of the other fears they have due to what has happened in the past, can iden

Agriculture committee  Supply management has told us they feel they have a policy in place that stabilizes their income and makes their industry more predictable and profitable. They're saying they don't want to be part of the top tiers of CAIS. They want to be part of the disaster program, because you

Agriculture committee  One of the things that CFA members absolutely are very strong on is that the supply management marketing structures work and we need to continue to maintain them. We need to have a very strong negotiating position at the WTO because we do believe that there is a way of negotiatin

Agriculture committee  First of all, let me say that we have discussed the Canadian farm bill at a federal-provincial agricultural ministers meeting, and they've been very receptive to our concepts. I don't know that we should compare this so much to the point of asking how we can implement a U.S.-lik

Agriculture committee  If I use the first APF as an example, you will recall that the federal government allocated a certain amount to, say, the environmental pillar, and then the provinces contributed their share. That then allowed us to develop a national approach to, say, an environmental farm plan.

Agriculture committee  We discussed this at our last trade committee meeting, exactly how we could develop a faster response. You can't do something almost as a preemptive strike, but yes, you could respond more quickly with resulting trade action, much like they do in the U.S., where they impose, say,

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I was asked late last week whether I could bring some of the former NSNAC members with me. You know what most farmers are doing this time of year, so regrettably, several of the ones I invited couldn't make it. But I do have Terry Betker with me,

Agriculture committee  Thank you. You're absolutely right. Again, we're looking at two issues. How do we create profitability in the industry and how do we sustain farmers through an income crisis? Profitability. We're committed to finding solutions and creating a policy environment within which farmer

Agriculture committee  On business risk management, yes, as far as the debt load is concerned, you're quite right. We had the agricultural attaché from the U.S. embassy speak at our annual meeting. You've already heard someone say that we've come out of the worst four years in farm income in our hist

Agriculture committee  We would certainly support a faster response time when it comes to challenges like that. You're absolutely right. Our industry could be destroyed overnight before we even had an opportunity to put some of the things into place. But by extension, we've also advocated that we shou