Health committee  Yes, definitely. I think that as we live through the results of this pandemic we're realizing how long our food chain is, and I think we're taking some really active steps to shorten it. I believe that support locally, whatever local means to you anywhere in Canada, will definite

Health committee  To put in place? Do you mean to bring our products to market?

Health committee  Okay. To bring our products to market—I can only speak for my province of Nova Scotia—I think we're doing a good job. For the farmers markets in general, those that didn't already have an online platform set up switched to it very quickly, which was incredibly helpful for both th

Health committee  Absolutely.

Health committee  I think a second wave is inevitable. That's a personal opinion. I think that bolstering the food producers within your community and ensuring that you're supporting them is really the only way that we can strengthen our food system, community by community. It doesn't necessarily

Health committee  Thank you.

Health committee  Thank you. The online portion is critical at this juncture because, of course, for the physical markets thus far, with the exception of a few markets that are doing pickup with pre-ordering and drop-off only, the online avenue is the only way to go at this point. For vendors li

Health committee  Yes, that's on our current farm plan as it is, with our farm expansion. It's a plan to have greenhouses in place to do greens production through the winter. Right now, our province is—

Health committee  Sorry. Basically, our province currently has the option of the root vegetable selection all winter or imported goods that are out of season for us. I believe that our province wants to eat within season, but I really believe that, with greenhouse production, we could change what

Health committee  I think, particularly when we're looking at what would be considered a massive customer base, i.e. the Nova Scotia school districts, those dollars would literally fund farms throughout their farming journey, whether they need to shut down over the winter or not. Having funding to

Health committee  I think it's going to be pretty fundamental. I access several of the services at the Kentville research centre for our farm, including water testing. Because this is new for all of us, I think research is going to play a huge part in how we deal with this, what our future plans a

Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Good afternoon. As the least-pedigreed witness on this panel, I thank you for the opportunity to address the committee. My name is Kim Hatcher, and I live in Canning, Nova Scotia, which is located in the Annapolis Valley, the main agricultural sector of ou