Agriculture committee  To answer that question in the opposite direction, some of the more challenging crops would be those like corn, which may require a lot more nitrogen fertility. This can be done by using longer rotations. There are great crops like hemp, which is a tremendous crop that builds soil organic matter.

Agriculture committee  In terms of labour, many of our small-scale organic farms have a human-scale approach. Therefore, they are able to find adequate labour. It's when you scale up that you're going to have a harder time finding adequate labour. In terms of precision agriculture, we are starting to see an increase.

Agriculture committee  I'll just mention once again that, if we're talking about a more adverse climate, the smaller-scale farm has the ability to be far more robust. When we think of yields, when you have average climate, they can be fine. But when you have drought or flood conditions, that's where the organic farming systems tend to rise to the occasion, and their yields are equal if not greater.

Agriculture committee  There's that, in combination with the fact that unfortunately most fertilizer companies recommend that a far greater rate of fertilizer is required, because they view the soil as being dead. If we start to understand that soil is living and can actually do a better job of holding on to those fertilizers, and then provide those fertilizers in a timely way to the plant, then even a responsible use of synthetic fertilizers is a way of maintaining good soil health and getting a bigger bang for your buck.

Agriculture committee  There's no question that on most university campuses we will not find a field dedicated to organic research. It would be a great benefit to do some dedicated work on an organic farming system, because organic practices are one thing, but a system is a better representation of something more robust.

Agriculture committee  Okay.

Agriculture committee  In respect of small-scale agriculture and small-scale farmers, recent studies have shown that the majority of new entrants are female and have a university education. What we're looking for is alternative ways of educating these small-scale farmers, because most of the information they will require for their farms will not be gained at a university level.

Agriculture committee  It's probably the U.S. example.

Agriculture committee  I find that one of the biggest challenges we have is that farmers do not have enough champions to promote the innovative practices, so we're lacking in a lot of extension. Great research is being done at the university level and being done in other parts of the world, but how do we transfer that knowledge from the universities onto the farms?

Agriculture committee  What we've actually seen is that the impact on small-scale farmers with respect to climate change has been minimal, in the sense that their systems are robust. When you have an extreme event such as flooding, their soils are able to drain properly, and they're able to benefit from having a better system.

Agriculture committee  Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, and members of Parliament on this committee. Thank you for inviting me here to be part of today's hearing. While I have the floor I also want to thank all of the members of this committee for being vocal supporters of Canada's organic industry. This interest in and commitment to organics resulted in funding recently announced by the Honourable Minister MacAulay for the Canadian organic standards.