Steve Paikin: Hi everybody, Steve Paikin here and welcome to another edition of TVO Today Live. Here's a quote for starters. A country that cannot feed itself, fuel itself, or defend itself has few options. That's what Prime Minister Mark Carney said at his now famous speech at Davos. Today we are here on the grounds of the Vineland Institute on the southwestern end of Lake Ontario about half an hour east of Hamilton to focus on Canada feeding itself. We're going to hear from across the agricultural and agra food sector on how to make this country a food superpower with options.

Steve Paikin: Before we start, we want to remember that these TVO Today live episodes are all possible thanks to the generosity of the Wilson Foundation and in particular Red Wilson who died earlier this year. Mr. Wilson was a big fan of this show. He was always very supportive of it. We remember his singular contribution to making these shows happen every time we turn the microphones or the cameras on. Thank you, Red Wilson. Now, our format today is going to be a little bit different as we want to hear from as many people in this sector as possible. And so, we have not got a what you might call traditional panel here today. Our panel is going to be the whole audience. The whole audience are the guests on this show. And we're going to cover four main themes. where agriculture is right now, what people are doing to thrive today, what the biggest challenges are, and what role innovation can play in taking us to the next level.

Steve Paikin: So, with all of that in place, let's get going. I want to start with a show of hands because we're going to do a little quick snappy poll here. Okay. It has never been a better time than now to be in agriculture. Hands up. Who agrees with that? No kidding. Hands down. Who disagrees with that statement? Nobody. You all think this is now the best time to be in agriculture. Wow. If you watch the news, you would never get that impression. So, we got to we got to figure this out a little more. Let's start here. Drew Spoelstra, I want to go to you first. Stand if you would. You're the president of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture. give us the view from 30,000 feet as to why every person in this room just voted the way they voted.

Drew Spoelstra: Well, thanks for having us, Steve, and thanks for having this conversation about agriculture and the importance of it in Ontario and Canada and beyond. I think everyone in agriculture is an optimist and has to be an optimist to move their business forward, to continue to grow every year, day in day out and do the best they can on their farms. And I think that's why you saw everybody put their hand up in this room. I think that there are a ton of challenges in this industry. a lot that we're facing right now because of things that are out of our control. But there's a heck of a lot of opportunity too. And if we have the right conditions and the right tools in our toolbox to move the industry forward, I think we can do that. And that's where I think u that's why there's so much optimism in this room.

Steve Paikin: I reacted with so much surprise because every time I talk to a farmer, the weather's never good enough. The equipment is never working well enough. My kids are never pitching in well enough as much as I want them to. Like they they don't take this the wrong way. Farmers do complain from time to time about a few things here and there. So why so much optimism in this room?

Drew Spoelstra: Yeah. Again, it's we do this job because we love it, I think, and that's why people are optimistic about it. They're optimistic about the the opportunities going forward in the future. They're optimistic about growth in their industry, in their business itself. And u you know, we go out, most of us go out, we plant things in the spring and and take it through to harvest and hope for a better result at the end of the year. And I think u you know, that's where a lot of that that passion in the room comes from and that optimism for the industry. I grow corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay. We milk cows. We have beef cattle around, and we have u a whole bunch of Clydesdale horses as well. well, it's tricky right now. u we're we're facing a lot of challenges u because of things that are out of control. Number one is the weather. we're facing a lot of uncertainty because of trade and the challenges that again are out of our control coming from the United States. u we're facing a lot of uncertainty in the fuel prices and fertilizer prices and our cost of production continues to climb and we're not seeing u we're not seeing prices climb on the other end of the products that we're marketing.

Steve Paikin: Good. Thanks for your contribution. Appreciate you getting us started here. Where's u John Cranfield, dean of the Ontario Agricultural School. How are farmers doing right now in your view?

John Cranfield: Well, I think to Drew's point, they're optimistic, but they are struggling. u you know, there's things that are out of their control. u they can't control the weather. we can control how we respond to it. They can't control what's happening south of the border. They can control how they respond to it. So I think for farmers right now it's what can we control and what's in our wheelhouse to actually affect positive change on our farms. So part of that I think is thinking about okay given where we are how do we think about not just this year but also next year three years down the road and five years down the road that the era of the Trump tariffs I don't think is going to go away and so we need to be thinking more about east west trade instead of north south trade and also thinking about making sure that we can continue to feed ourselves.

Steve Paikin: There are still or I should ask are there still lots of young people who want to enroll in your post-secondary institution and learn about this sector?

John Cranfield: Yes, but there aren't enough. there's going to be a shortage of workers in agriculture of about 100,000 people in the country. So programs like the seasonal farm worker and temporary farm worker programs are critically important to the functioning effective functioning of of agriculture. But what's changing is the needs of those students who are coming into the sector and are then going into the industry. It's a high-tech sector. It's a STEMbased field. u doesn't matter whether you're dealing with crops, livestock, horiculture, soil science, it's it's it's STEM driven. We know from a few years ago that for every graduate from our college, the Ontario Agricultural College, there were four jobs waiting for them. my hunch is that it's probably closer to 5 to one.

Steve Paikin: We may have some here today. Who's a young farmer here? I'd like you to please tell us who you are, where you're from. Hi, I'm Jessica Soleni. I'm a grape grower here in Niagara on the Lake. Jessica, you put your hand up when we ask is it a good is this the best time to be in agriculture?

Jessica Soleni: Um, well like like farmers like we say are optimistic. Um, I also think there's a lot of momentum. So for our side on like the grape growing side and the wine side, there's a lot of support for Ontario grown products and 100% Ontario grown grapes. So this was actually the first harvest in three harvests that we sold all our grapes. So there's a lot of momentum in our industry, but then there's a lot of possibility for change. I worry about the weather. um uncertainty with trade. Um there's a lot of great federal and provincial programs that we have in our sector. u making sure they'll stay around for the long term and that they're also planned for. Unfortunately, the way things go, they're usually two to fiveyear programs and it's hard to plan a vineyard like that, especially when it takes five years to get a full crop when you first plant a vineyard and it's about a 30 to $40,000 investment per acre. it's myself and I have four siblings on the farm. Um, out of five of us, four have joined the farm. So, I think my dad's pretty happy.

Steve Paikin: Very cool. That's That's unusual, isn't it? Uh, who else? Who's another young farmer here who wants to Okay, we got a microphone in the back here, please. If you wouldn't mind, introduce yourself and tell us where you farm.

Nikki Scott: I'm Nikki Scott and I u I'm a farmer with my two brothers um from the Hamilton area. We grow potatoes. We are fourth generation. Yes. My great-grandfather bought in 1915 in the area. u my father took over after him. u dropped the cattle kind of when I came along. I went away from the farm for a few years and u then begged to come back um and said like I just I can't handle the the corporate life. I much more prefer to work with my family. we've got on our farm, we have, um, lots of extended family as well. I've got aunts, I've got uncles, I've got cousins, um, that all work on the farm with us. So, um, it's it's a true farm operation and family operation. Brenby Farms.

Steve Paikin: Fantastic. I want to put something on the record here, which is a recent report for the Green Belt Foundation that says that Ontario's agriculture and agra food exports almost doubled between 2017 and 2024, from 15.5 billion to 28.3 billion worth. But it also said that imports grew too and therefore we are still at an eight billion dollar trade deficit. So is Ontario agriculture booming or are we just barely keeping up here or maybe not keeping up so well? Who wants in on that?

Chuck Baresich: Hi. u Chuck Barisuch, a farmer and a business owner. I think that you know when I look at our farm and our farming area I think we're we are just barely keeping up. when we compare Canadian results, not just Ontario, but Canadian results against other countries, there's lots of opportunity. I think Canada is I I think ninth in the world in in a exports and but we have one of the largest chunks of arable land. So there's tremendous amount of opportunity.

Steve Paikin: Could be better. Jan Vanderhort, I'm a greenhouse cucumber grower in Hamilton and I'm also chair of the Ontario Greenhouse Alliance.

Jan VanderHout: I think that by Canada has helped in general. I would also add though that on our farm and in our industry u we we are 85% exported to the US and 300 tractor trailer loads a day isn't something that can just be absorbed in Canada or through east to west trade. So, um, yes, it helps, but not all of us are going to experience enough benefit from that to, u, to really to make that shine. It's the same. The tariffs have not stopped the flow. and and a good thing because if if it if it had then we'd have five times as much product to or six times as much product to move domestically which would that would be a disaster. part of the reason why u I'm hesitant is we we so depend on that US market.

Steve Paikin: So, okay, where's Richard Lee? Do you worry he might say the same thing about Agra?

Richard Lee: I think you outlined u a couple key points, right? It's a symbiotic relationship. During March u 2025, I think we paid in those three days that those broad tariffs of 25% were applied, we paid almost $7 million to get our product across that border. it was a lot of shock, but at that time, our members did a great job. they tried to pass on those u additional costs, but ultimately there's no supply chain that could absorb that kind of increase. Maintaintaining that relationship that symbiotic trade relationship is utmost importance to our sector. Using economic levers to u cause strain on different sectors is a very rudimental approach. It's a sledgehammer approach as opposed to a scalpel.

Steve Paikin: Mark Hamill, chair of the Dairy Farmers of Ontario. Do you think that supply management can survive after this round of negotiating?

Mark Hamel: u yeah yes yes I do. You know, you heard about the optimism right now in our industry. There's a a real shift to protein. our consumers are looking for food sovereignty, food security, food independence. u we have the best quality or as good a quality as any country in the world and why not u produce it here and process it here for our for our Canadians. there's a billion u US exports, a billion dollars worth of dairy products into Canada where we only export four back. So, that u imbalance is in, you know, two and a half times. So they're they're already exporting way more into our u our market than we are into theirs.

Steve Paikin: Where's John Lommo? He's managing partner of Catalyze 4. What's your mission, John? what's the number you want to see?

John Lomax: My mission is exactly that. I want us to be u 95% food sovereign. Be able to feed ourselves from here u from what we produce and what we process in this country u to to 95%. we are starting to see technologies come to be that are going to allow us and not just us, every country in the world to be far more food sovereign. controlled environment agriculture being kind of the thin edge there. u greenhouse but also what some would call warehouse farming, dark farming, vertical farming. Um and then things like u u precision fermentation, u u advanced u cellular agriculture and even molecular synthesis. I mean, there are companies who are literally making protein from thin air. we're going to see u we're going to see kilowatts into calories. I mean that's that's really where we're going with this and and the primary agriculture input is going to be energy.

Steve Paikin: Luca Galler. Um, I am a masterers of science student at the University of G. Is it possible to necessarily feed these communities just on um with these controlled environment units?

Luca Galler: what one thing we're struggling with right now is especially if you're talking about hydroponics, there's very limited amount of variety that we can grow. And at the end of the day, we're not going to feed communities just on lettuce. especially if we're talking about northern and remote communities who a lot of them are predominantly indigenous. Like leafy greens aren't traditionally part of their diet. Energy is a huge one, but also clean water. Supplemental to um, food security in these communities, but I don't necessarily think that right away we're going to be feeding these communities by any means.

Steve Paikin: Annette comes to us from Manatulan Island. Wikong. What issues with starting up agricultural operations on reserve?

Annette: we can't actually use buildings and u you know equipment as collateral something that can't be removed from the reserve. So we actually um are looking for different types of funding where traditional lending institutions will not lend money to us to start agricultural operations. the thing with Northern Ontario is that there's no infrastructure to support your agricultural activities. So, I just got myself some beef cattle. u their closest abbittoire is an hour and a half away and u they're booked a year ahead of time.

Steve Paikin: Dana Dickerson. I'm the director of market development and sustainability at Grain Farmers of Ontario. How do we connect our rural areas to southern Ontario processing?

Dana Dickerson: we always think of agriculture, agra food Canada as our main u champion but also we deal with environment, climate change Canada. We deal with finance Canada. silos, right? Silos. They all work in silos, these ministries, and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand's doing. once our sector is competitive, farms can stay in business, they can continue to produce and we can contribute to national food security.

Steve Paikin: Alex Barlo, vice president, programs, Canadian Food Innovation Network. How is innovation going to get us there?

Alex Barlow: u well, I mean, I would argue that Canada's already a food superpower. 91% of the food processing market is under 10 employees. technology to help them work on their business versus in their business is really really important. they partnered with a local digital tech company, Mode40, to build u an agentic AI system that sits on all their data, helps them plan their production, schedule everything.

Steve Paikin: Sandra Voss. I'm a cow calf beef farmer here in Ontario and innovation in our industry.

Sandra Vos: our biggest challenge is labor. So, we are now trying to bring in more um AI cameras to check carcasses. We're also using drones in terms of moving cattle. We're using invisible like your dog's fence lines. if that makes you a more efficient beef farmer, then definitely we're trying to take those steps.

Steve Paikin: I want to survey the room and see if there is agreement on that point. Canada is sufficiently seized of these issues that we will do what it takes to get a lot more food independent than we are today. Who agrees with that? Hands down. Who disagrees with it? John is not sure. Also, Annette, not sure. international year of the female farmer. I want to thank all of you for taking time out of your day. So long from Lincoln, Ontario. We'll see you next time on TVO Today Live.