Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. Just before you close the meeting, I would encourage the Government of Canada to take advantage of the 4-H program. We are a partner with the government through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. You need young people front row and centre in terms of the op

Agriculture committee  In 2004 we did a survey of the aboriginal community. We surveyed 400 bands, individuals, chiefs, etc., and we asked whether they were interested in aboriginal 4-H. The response rate was 98% yes. It was very positive in that regard, so through Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada fund

Agriculture committee  I think that might have some effect on it. I suspect that when immigrants come to urban centres, they basically stay in their own communities. That's a difficulty in terms of not really getting out into other traditional Canadian programs. But yes, that definitely could be a fa

Agriculture committee  I'm going to let Ken talk about the introduction of 4-H into schools. Ken, do you want to talk about the back-to-school promotion programs we're working on with the provinces?

Agriculture committee  Exactly.

Agriculture committee  Let me tell you my vision of 4-H in urban centres. We're moving forward pretty quickly on developing strategies for entrants to 4-H in urban centres, but my vision is to see the Canadian 4-H Council advertising for 4-H on our website, any which way you want to do it, in social me

Agriculture committee  Thank you.

Agriculture committee  I certainly see merit in what you're describing in respect to the fact that somehow there has to be a connection made. We can go into urban centres and we can educate and teach young people more about agriculture. But that's just one point. The next step is to make that connectio

Agriculture committee  I'm not familiar enough with organic farming to answer that question, although. once again, coming over in the taxi with Ashley and learning a little bit about her background—you can maybe help me out on this part, Ashley--there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason in how you d

Agriculture committee  Exactly. Ashley?

Agriculture committee  In Ontario and in British Columbia, they're using 4-H. You can earn a high school credit. If you take 4-H, you get a credit out of it, so there is some education that's taking place and it's certainly being recognized as a credit. I agree totally with you in terms of agricultura

Agriculture committee  I'll respond to the first question. Ken and I attended a presentation by Jay Bradshaw from Syngenta last week, and he referred to science and technology in agriculture. It's amazing what my ignorance of agriculture is. I didn't know that they made snow tires out of walnuts thes

Agriculture committee  Currently the granddaddy of our conferences—we run four national conferences—is the National 4-H Conference. It started out in 1933, when we put kids on the train in Halifax and Vancouver and they came to the Royal Winter Fair with their livestock. That was the first program we e

Agriculture committee  A number of years ago the Department of Agriculture did one thing that was of significant benefit to us: they allowed us to utilize some of our funding for administration. One of the things we're finding, Pierre, is that these days when we talk to corporate sponsors, they want

Agriculture committee  It does come down to money, though. It seems to be boiling right back to dollars and cents. I talked to Ashley this morning--as I say, we'd never met before--and she was talking about going into production after she graduates from the University of Guelph. What's the first thing