Agriculture committee  Get men off the couch in Africa to help women grow food. It's shocking. I'm sure you know what I mean.

Agriculture committee  Yes. I go back to our technologies. We have some incredible technologies. Through research, we have developed crop varieties that require much less water. In Japan, they're now growing rice that doesn't have to be grown in water. Those technologies can be exported tariff-free to help Africa.

Agriculture committee  None did.

Agriculture committee  That was my own decision.

Agriculture committee  It was my own decision—well, mine and my wife's. I had better clarify that. Can I add that to my first answer?

Agriculture committee  You've basically written my bio. That is what it is. I talk about sustainability; it's environmental, but it's economic as well. If it's not economic, you won't get to the environmental sustainability that you want to get to.

Agriculture committee  I do not think Canada should follow that. I can't tell you whether or not it's based on science, but it certainly doesn't appear to be.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. That's a very good question. A lot of it is tied to data and data collection and ways of analyzing data. Farmers collect that data. Part of the problem—and I'll digress a bit here— is that most farmers collect all of this data in their combine or tractor and can't download it until they get home at two o'clock in the morning because they don't have Internet access out in the field.

Agriculture committee  Yes, it certainly is. No, not everybody is practising 4R nutrient stewardship, but it's good that there's an incentive. It will get more people interested. It's like environmental farm plans. People can put down on paper what they are doing. It's good for our credibility around the world, as well, that we are practising it, but focusing on fertilizing the good land more and the poorer land less and using sectional controls have all contributed to less use of fertilizer.

Agriculture committee  I would certainly hope that there isn't one. You folks sitting around this table.... I was one, and I was never an expert in every discussion that we had, whether it was on the floor of the chamber or wherever it was. We depend on scientists to give us that information. We can watch what we've gone through with COVID.

Agriculture committee  Very bluntly, our credibility around the world.... Very simply, would they be so comfortable buying food from Canada if we had a partisan system of reviewing what was safe and what wasn't safe?

Agriculture committee  Have you looked at the price of fertilizer?

Agriculture committee  Why would a farmer waste it? As I mentioned, we've changed our processes. We use more fertilizer where there's a potential of a better crop. I've left 60 acres of my farm to wildlife because it was not good soil. I don't spend any money putting fertilizer on that. I put it on the good land.

Agriculture committee  Thank you for that question, Mr. Barlow. Just to clarify your question, the maximum residue limits are set up by an international body, and we have one of the most revered systems around the world as far as health protection goes in the CFIA, as well as in our Pest Management Regulatory Agency.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, let me express my appreciation for this committee's work and efforts on an increasingly crucial issue, which is food security. You have heard from many experts already, and they have provided some very credible and compelling facts and advice, so please allow me to provide some personal viewpoints and experiences from a Canadian farmer's perspective.