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Agriculture committee Most of the advantages for GM products have been designed to help improve productivity at the farm level, so a lot of the technology to date that has been brought forward, let's call it the biotechnology tools, has been to improve things like weed control, disease control, insect
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee Thank you.
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee I think we're not yet seeing the potential for the biofuels industry. When I look at wheat, I think we have to look at it in terms of what we can get from that crop. Of course, the obvious ones are things like milling wheat for breads, cookies, cakes, and pastas. We need to loo
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee As I mentioned earlier, we have to be able to demonstrate to the customer, the consumer, the benefits or value that the GM technology brings to them and to the market. Also, I think we need to implement an education program that not only demonstrates the value, but really deals w
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee We're not, to my knowledge, building any more area to produce crops. For wheat, for example, as I mentioned in my brief, it's expected by the year 2050 we're more or less going to have to move from about 660 million tonnes to 880 million tonnes to feed the nine billion people on
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee I'd also like to—
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee In terms of reduction in red tape, I think any time we can let the market sort things out, versus regulating it, is always a good thing. I would like to see an environment that actually encourages investment in innovation here, particularly with our crops and in particular with w
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee I think the marketplace will dictate, determine or specify what we need to grow. As you know we currently grow nine different classes of wheat in western Canada. I think in many ways that provides us with a lot of strength because we have a lot of different opportunities for thos
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee The Alberta Wheat Commission started four years ago with a resolution that was tabled at an AGM asking the board to investigate producer interest in creating an all-wheat commission. At the time there were two producer commissions in the province, one representing winter wheat an
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee I believe GM wheat will come eventually. I'm not sure when exactly that will be; some predict within the next 10 years. We know there are developments currently under way. It will be done in a coordinated fashion in concert with a lot of the companies in the major wheat-produci
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee I can't give real life examples currently because I think it's still early days yet. From what I understand, Alliance Grain's plans are still to go ahead. They've just been delayed due to other business reasons. I expect that we will see, as the marketplace sorts itself out in te
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee First of all, just to clarify, I'm not a farmer. I grew up on a small farm in eastern Ontario, moved west in 1980, have been involved in the agricultural corporate side of things for 34 years, and took early retirement, but all during my career I worked with some great farmers. I
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee Yes, 84%. That is correct.
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
Agriculture committee They saw the change in the marketplace as benefiting their farming operations financially.
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead
November 20th, 2012Committee meeting
Rick Istead