Agriculture committee  We do trust you.

Agriculture committee  I would.

Agriculture committee  No. It will play a role, but not a leadership role.

Agriculture committee  Looking at food policies and vision, for the countries that do have a clear vision--Britain, New Zealand--there's a common denominator for all of them. They've gone through major food crises. The message I would convey to this committee today is that we shouldn't wait for a major crisis to hit us before we actually provide ourselves with a vision.

Agriculture committee  Venture capital is about risks, and I'm not sure I want the government to take on all the risks for these endeavours, but we need to figure out a way to better support these widget builders out there. There are many of them. There are many of them in agriculture and food. There are some great products being developed.

Agriculture committee  I'm personally involved with the Conference Board right now. You may be aware that Galen Weston of Loblaws is funding a good portion of this “food in Canada” policy that is being orchestrated by the Conference Board of Canada through the Centre for Food in Canada initiative. We've been working on this since last November, for less than a year now, and we meet three or four times a year.

Agriculture committee  The government shouldn't pick and choose winners and losers. The market should--big difference.

Agriculture committee  There's a big difference, so whatever framework we decide to provide to ourselves needs to be flexible enough to allow the market or markets to dictate exactly where the industry should be going or ought to be going. As I said earlier, innovation is really about selling to markets what they need without markets knowing.

Agriculture committee  --and in truckloads, right?

Agriculture committee  Yes, exactly. This is what we should be doing in agriculture and food in the country. To respond to your second question, when it comes to research, I can speak as a university administrator. It's always difficult to provide capacity to industry. As Mr. Miville was saying earlier, industry gets frustrated dealing with the universities because they can't get the proper knowledge.

Agriculture committee  At some point, farmers need to understand not only that the landscape is shifting but that it's always going to be shifting. Markets are going to become more volatile than ever. There is a new reality out there. As a trading nation, we have to accept the fact that when it comes to international commerce, we sell things and we buy things.

Agriculture committee  Innovation is really about selling something to someone who doesn't know he needs it but he does need it. That's really what innovation is, and I'm not convinced that agriculture in Canada has done a good job recognizing these opportunities over the last few years. We're particularly good at growing things very quickly and producing things, but without really understanding whether there's actually a marketing purpose to whatever we're growing faster and better and tastier.

Agriculture committee  To quickly add to JoAnne's comment about research, I have the beauty of being a teacher, a researcher, but I'm also an associate dean. I manage over 100 researchers within my college. It's not always easy to influence research agendas within the college. All the universities in Canada face the same reality.

Agriculture committee  Yes, definitely. One of the major problems is that people in the universities often see that the government operates in isolation. If a strategic plan or framework is to be developed that makes any sense in meeting the needs of the population, concepts such as human health have to be included.

Agriculture committee  Absolutely. I'm really in favour of the value chain approach, the cluster approach. An unconditional value is attached to that. Quebec was the first province to use it. The federal government has in a way followed the Quebec model. Ultimately, that's what's happened, and I'm happy about that.