Agriculture committee  Just quickly, when I came home and looked at the operation, it seemed to me that value added was the way to go, and there was a lot of encouragement to do that. But once I had done that, this whole increased food safety thing came out of the blue at me. I knew it was coming, but if you are looking for areas to help farmers, that would be one for me.

Agriculture committee  I guess all I would add to that is that as an industry, we've been doing innovation to increase the growers' returns. But I am very concerned about increased labour, increased fuel, and increased input costs. Whether our innovation is increasing at a level that will cover those costs is a really challenging question.

Agriculture committee  I have 25.

Agriculture committee  Yes, I'm always looking for new products. This year we're going to do a pear wine vinegar and sell that. Actually, for one of the unique products I've developed, I have had an overseas inquiry to see if I could export it to them. I do sell at the local farmers' market in the capital.

Agriculture committee  Dumping is a problem. Certainly south of us there are a lot of apples being planted currently, in the U.S. The retailer shops the world. I always feel like when you shop the world, there's always somewhere in the world where there's going to be a bargain. How we always compete against somewhere where there's a bargain coming from is a real problem, especially in the fruit industry.

Agriculture committee  I'll begin by speaking of some of my personal experiences in farming and then I'll expand into the industry perspective, as last year I served as president of the Nova Scotia Fruit Growers' Association. I grew up on a family farm that initially was set up to grow export apples.