Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. I'll cede the rest of my time to Mr. Louis.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I am splitting my time with Mr. Louis. Thank you to the officials. I want to follow up on the question about the future of farms and the transfer to the next generation. This is not just for farm families that have farms right now. It's also for young people who want to get into farming, and perhaps their parents or other generations do not have farms currently.

Agriculture committee  In addition to being able to export pulses and crops, there's also the opportunity for us to increase agri-food manufacturing in Canada. This is because a lot of goods are exported and then we import the finished products to use in some of the plant-based proteins. There is a shift globally in our consumption in the energy sector, and it's also happening in the agriculture sector with more plant-based proteins.

Agriculture committee  Right now at the environment committee we're doing a study on sustainable finance. The taxonomy looks at investments from financial institutions in industries that are considered to be advancing our goals when it comes to net zero by 2030 and 2050. I'm thinking the investments in these kinds of facilities, which obviously have a very large impact on helping us meet our environmental goals, could be attractive for a lot of the financial institutions looking for these kinds of investments.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Minister, for your interest in this and answering questions. Thank you, Chair.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Minister MacAulay and your colleagues, for being here today to answer questions about the main estimates. As you know, I'm a great supporter of Agriculture and Agri-Food's initiatives in the plant-based protein sector. I noticed additional funding of over $11 million was announced for Pulse Canada under the AgriScience program.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Louis. I just want to say something to Mr. Stronach, because I failed to say it in my last session. I just want to thank you. There are numerous people at your stage and age, Mr. Stronach, with your success, who would not be this passionate about the kind of vision that you have for our country.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, is there any way that we can finish up with the witnesses so that we can move to this, as opposed to having them wait for us to go through the motion?

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Stronach. Regarding young people and keeping our farms in Canada, we've heard a lot in this committee about young people not getting into farming, not being able to afford it or not having interest in it, but I've noticed in my experience that there are a lot of young people who are interested in smaller farms, organic farms and local farms.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and thank you to all the witnesses for being here. We've heard from numerous witnesses today of the importance of sustainable food and local food security for Canada. Mr. Stronach, I know that you've put a lot of time and effort into GUHAH, the foundation you started to ensure that children have access to healthy food.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Stronach. I know that you are in the farming business and that you have an organic farm. I'm wondering if you can talk about what the government can do to help with the transition. We know we can't just cut off all fertilizers or pesticides. There is a transition, as in the oil and gas sector, where we have to transition to renewable sources of energy.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. I think my time is up.

Agriculture committee  In my riding of Aurora—Oak Ridges—Richmond Hill, we have a number of different alliances. The York Region Environmental Alliance is promoting small agricultural and local sustainable farms in our area. However, one of the issues we're facing is available farmland. I'm wondering if you could comment on what the situation is like for new farmers looking to start farms and acquire land.

Agriculture committee  That's for anyone.