Agriculture committee  In our area, we try to farm together as a whole, all the different apple growers together, and we have found that by combining our resources and creating an infrastructure for the industry, we're better off than we are competing individually against each other. When we're competing in such a huge market anyway, we're better to band together and try to get ahead that way.

Agriculture committee  Healthy eating is becoming more and more popular all the time. It might help to gain some interest with the youth if you took the healthy eating tack, and at the same time tried to create some awareness as to where agriculture is, where your food comes from, how to distinguish labels, and at the same time make labels clearer, because there are a lot of different takes on that.

Agriculture committee  Right now it's been reasonably positive. My father had to provide guarantees on things, but I deal with TD Bank and they've been very good. When we went to talk to Farm Credit, they just said we were better off to check with our local bank, because they can't offer young farmers anything this way without the assets behind it, even if our father provided a guarantee.

Agriculture committee  It's a lot of the same result in our area. There's a lot of misinformation about farming. Some of my friends over the years have become more involved and interested in it. They like the lifestyle and the career, but it's just unbelievably hard to get into, with the establishment costs required.

Agriculture committee  Hi. My name is Greg Ardiel. I'm a fourth-generation farmer, mostly in the tender fruit industry. I grow apples primarily, as well as grapes and pears. I'd like to thank you all for coming out here today to listen to some of our growing concerns. There are many obstacles to be faced in farming as a whole, whether you're just beginning or just ending, as more and more seem to be doing.