Agriculture committee  I think it's just what you say: the farms are getting bigger and bigger, so there are fewer farms, and those farms are bringing less return per farmer. It's not as easy to have 22 people supported on one farm as it used to be. That goes back to the net farm income question that

Agriculture committee  I was referring to your personal history of there being 22 people on a farm. I assume your grandfather could feed those 22 people on the farm.

Agriculture committee  I think there's a real misunderstanding around that idea, actually, because the figures globally are that 70% of people are fed by small-scale peasant agriculture. I think that if we canvassed most people, they would think that they are fed by large—

Agriculture committee  Are you suggesting that we won't be able to feed Canadians if we put more emphasis on smaller, more local production?

Agriculture committee  They definitely are, but I think we would need to produce some material to support that point. The way we look at the figures—

Agriculture committee  We've seen, over time, a shift from being able to feed more Canadians with Canadian food to not being able to feed as many Canadians with Canadian food. We believe it's possible to reverse that trend and feed more Canadians with Canadian food.

Agriculture committee  That is a very big question. That has to do with subsidies and our industrial agriculture system, and putting us on a trend toward export-based commodities. If you're selling one product, then you want to make the most of that one product if your goal is to increase exports. If

Agriculture committee  In no way do we want to exclude exports from the equation, but right now net farm income is below zero, so certainly our current system is not working. Based on exports, farmers are going out of business. That's not the way to bring more farmers in. There's a more positive way to

Agriculture committee  It's in the paper. The numbers are at the beginning of the agriculture paper.

Agriculture committee  I think the common definition of sustainability that's usually used is meeting our needs now without compromising our resources to meet our needs in the future. Another way that I would look at it is—I don't know if you guys have heard of the “100-mile diet”—eating food grown wit

Agriculture committee  I would answer that in two parts. One is that when we refer to bringing more food to more people, that's around local agriculture and supporting local producers. It's easier if you shorten the chain to have fresher and healthier food available locally. I would also posit that

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the questions. Certainly we need political will. A shift in direction would need to take place, and it would include looking at our trade agreements. We need to, for instance, continue to defend supply management. Supply management isn't perfect, and ther

Agriculture committee  Yes, definitely. What we're trying to make the connection between, for instance, is countries like China that are going to countries in Africa and buying up massive tracts of land to be able to feed their populations into the future, and Canada, which needs to start looking for

Agriculture committee  It's a possibility. When we look at trying to build the demand side for local and sustainable food, assuming the benefits, we can look at that idea.

Agriculture committee  They could go hand in hand. For instance, to go back to the bee example that your counterpart was giving, unless we make it easy for them to buy local and sustainable—