Agriculture committee  No, we don't make a distinction between growers in my own market. We have a tomato and pepper grower on a commercial scale, and he is just as welcome to be selling his produce as someone with a plastic greenhouse in the backyard. There is no distinction.

Agriculture committee  As my red light is on, I guess I'm it. I would certainly like to see the west coast of British Columbia moving to being the market garden, if you will, of western Canada because of lower energy use to grow these products. It's a perfect location to do research into newer varieties, low-light tolerance, and other types of development, for vegetable crops.

Agriculture committee  I'd like to say that we start a lot earlier than university. We start basically at the ground level. We have started with coupon programs, with a healthiest babies or tots program, where kids are now being encouraged to come to farmers' markets and learn about the farm. There are also school programs that bring farmers to schools.

Agriculture committee  I have been involved in the greenhouse industry for a number of years, and I'm aware of the production across all of western Canada. In my statement earlier, I was referring to things like leafy vegetables, which are not going to be energy-dependent. I think energy usage is one of the biggest issues that the greenhouse industry has, as well as greenhouse gases and all the rest.

Agriculture committee  I feel that I don't have enough depth or experience to answer a lot of your questions, particularly about whether funding is enough. I mean, it would be easy to say that funding is never enough, but that's not being reasonable. We're a very small group and we basically have not had access to very much funding, certainly at the federal level.

Agriculture committee  We would like to see those types of funds go into innovative tools that the local market vendor can use, and that could certainly be across Canada. Science is not our strong point; we're not researchers. We are the end users of that science, but we take it and use it to the best of our abilities to improve our market share.

Agriculture committee  I'm not quite sure; when you say “strengthening national markets”, do you mean from the small producer providing food into a hub that can then be exported across Canada? Is that what you mean when you ask that question?

Agriculture committee  I'm sorry, it's not coming through. The volume is very low. Can you please repeat your question?

Agriculture committee  Thank you. We are representing just the farmers' markets in British Columbia, but I think what goes for our association probably would fit nationally. We're all looking at providing support and increasing the numbers across Canada to try to provide more locations for farmers to come together and sell their goods and gain further income.

Agriculture committee  One of the tenets of a farmers' market is make it, bake it, or grow it in British Columbia. We like to have a person who actually grew the product there to have that communication with the consumer. A number of trials have actually been done where three or four farmers will provide product to another grower, who will then sell that to the consumers.

Agriculture committee  In a perfect world, I would like to see coastal British Columbia in fact being the market garden, providing a lot of, if you will, just vegetables. I think that's where it's going to happen, is on green vegetables. Right now we import massive amounts from California, Florida, and the southern U.S. in the winter.

Agriculture committee  It's not only a possibility, it is happening. In the city of Vancouver there is talk about a food hub. They're now talking about a building. It's actually in progress. So things are moving.

Agriculture committee  Farmers' markets are really sort of a hot topic for the consumer these days. They are sprouting up, if you will, all over the place. The problem is there are maybe a few too many of them, and they are becoming small-scale. The economy of scale might not work for some of the smaller markets.

Agriculture committee  That is actually a program that the BC Association of Farmers' Markets was heavily involved in. We had a trial for a three-year period. It was a coupon program that was funded provincially, where money was sent to partnered institutions such as food banks. Those coupons, if you will, were given out, redeemable at the local farmers' market for produce only, not for other goods and services but for food only.

Agriculture committee  At the senior level, there has been some research done at the Agassiz station for crops that are not normally grown in British Columbia. But developing new varieties that are specially adapted to the high-moisture, warmer, milder climate that we have on coastal British Columbia would certainly be an area that would be perfect research.