WEBVTT - What The 'Lentil King of Saskatchewan' Knows About World Trade 0:00:02.720 --> 0:00:14.000 Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio News. 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.400 Hello and welcome to another episode of the Odd Locks podcast. 0:00:22.480 --> 0:00:26.880 I'm Jill Wisenthal and I'm Tracy Alloway. Tracy. Canadian elections 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:27.440 last night. 0:00:27.680 --> 0:00:30.720 Yes, big event. I think a lot of people are 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:33.159 talking about it in the context of US politics. Right, 0:00:33.760 --> 0:00:37.040 So we just saw Mark Karney and the Liberals win, 0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:40.960 and in a lot of ways, I think people would 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:45.360 agree that Mark Carney's sort of the antithesis of Trump, right, 0:00:45.440 --> 0:00:50.920 He's the sort of globalization Davos, former central banker guy. 0:00:51.880 --> 0:00:55.040 And the funny thing is, or the slightly ironic thing 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:58.600 is it seems like Trump might have swung the election 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:00.480 in the direction of the girls. 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:02.639 Well, yeah, you go back like three months ago or 0:01:02.680 --> 0:01:05.440 four months ago or something, and it just seemed guaranteed 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.640 that the Conservatives Pierre Pluliev was going to win. And 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.600 then Trump started talking about making Canada the fifty first state, 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:16.399 and suddenly fortunes turned very quickly. But that was just 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:20.720 a news hook. We're not really doing a Canadian politics 0:01:20.800 --> 0:01:23.000 episode today, per se. 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:24.199 We're doing something better. 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:27.479 We're doing something better. The real reason that we're doing 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:29.679 this episode, this just happened to be good timing for 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.680 the hook. The real reason we're doing this episode is 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:35.880 that several weeks ago, I was reading an article and 0:01:35.959 --> 0:01:38.800 I saw a title about a man named the lentil 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:41.760 King of Saskatchewan, or not named but titled as such, 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:45.120 and I thought to myself, the lentil King of Saskatchewan 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:48.240 sounds like a great odd lots character, someone that we 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.360 should talk to to learn about a very specific business 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:53.080 and how it works. 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:57.160 The lentil King of Saskatchewan, the Sultan of split Peas, 0:01:57.240 --> 0:02:01.440 the Grand Poopa of pulses, the Baron of beans, Monarch 0:02:01.640 --> 0:02:03.200 of multi grains. I can keep going. 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:06.760 You did your prep. That's really good. Anyway, do we 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:11.200 have the lentil King of Saskatchewan on the podcast today 0:02:11.520 --> 0:02:14.239 and we are going to really learn about how the 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:18.800 international pulses and grains trade actually work. What does it mean, 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:21.240 How does trading work with us, how does it work 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:22.959 with the rest of the world. How do you build 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:23.839 that supply chain. 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.320 I'm also just incredibly surprised that Canada is such a 0:02:27.320 --> 0:02:30.160 big player in this market. I think it exports like 0:02:30.760 --> 0:02:34.120 a third of the world's lentil crop something like that. 0:02:34.120 --> 0:02:35.000 That's kind of crazy. 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.320 That is a lot of lentils. But they have a 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:40.000 lot of land in Canada for this type of thing. 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:42.600 Not a ton of people, a lot of land. Anyway, 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.919 let's learn all about the lentil trade, the pulse trade, 0:02:46.919 --> 0:02:48.240 the grain trade and so forth. 0:02:48.360 --> 0:02:50.119 Are we going to take the pulse of the pulse trade. 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:52.440 We're going to take the pulse of the pulse trade. 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:55.000 We are speaking with Marad al Katib. He is the 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:59.680 president and CEO of AGT Food and Ingredients, credited with 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:03.359 turn Saskatchewan into such a powerhouse of trade from a 0:03:03.520 --> 0:03:06.320 lentil So, Marian, thank you so much for coming on odlot. 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:07.720 Well, thanks for having me. 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:10.799 What did you start with? What does the lentil King 0:03:10.919 --> 0:03:14.200 of Saskatchewan do tell us about the business of an 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:16.000 AGT Food and ingredient. 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:17.639 Is it good to be the lentil King. 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:23.720 It's definitely been an interesting career for me to kind 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:27.560 of contribute to the transformation of agriculture out in Western Canada. So, 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:31.079 you know, coming up on twenty five years since I 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.800 made a decision to quit my job in government at 0:03:33.800 --> 0:03:36.440 the Governor of Saskatchewan and move to the basement of 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:40.880 my house and drive the transformation of a cropping system that. 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:43.000 You know, when I was a kid growing up in 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:46.280 a little town called Davidson, Saskatchewan, we grew wheat and 0:03:46.320 --> 0:03:49.200 we grew canola, and then the farmers had to leave 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:53.000 their soil to summer follow because the nitrogen fertilizer that 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:55.680 they used in canola and the oil seed was so 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.560 heavy that the soil needed to replenish naturally. The alternative 0:03:59.600 --> 0:04:04.600 to that to plant and nitrogen fixing legume, so lentils, chickpeas, 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.880 peas beans. These crops actually fix nitrogen. They don't require 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:12.280 nitrogen fertilizer. And so, you know, that was my bet. 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.080 I mean, I was a twenty seven year old young 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:17.680 entrepreneur who kind of looked at this situation and said, 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:20.880 look agronomically, if we can grow these things, the world 0:04:20.920 --> 0:04:25.320 demands them. They're protein crops. If we could intersect, you know, 0:04:25.360 --> 0:04:28.839 taking our summer follow into protein and reaching global markets, 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.080 I could create a business. And that was kind of 0:04:32.120 --> 0:04:35.359 the premise. So it's been quite exciting to build a 0:04:35.440 --> 0:04:39.640 multi billion dollar company based round the Regina, Saskatchewan, you know, 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:43.120 to kind of reach the world, drive the Canadian trade, 0:04:43.160 --> 0:04:47.640 and participate in growing and consolidating a global supply chain 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:48.400 in this business. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.719 So how big a player is Canada nowadays in pulses 0:04:52.800 --> 0:04:56.320 and grains and lentils and all those things I mentioned 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.400 earlier that I think it produces like a third of 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:01.640 the world's life until crop I did see an estimate 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.560 that said sixty percent of the world's lentil crops. I 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:07.560 went with the third trying to be conservative here, but 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.320 like give us some context around where Canada sits in 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:11.880 this space. 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:14.920 Yeah, we would be more depend on the crop year, 0:05:14.960 --> 0:05:18.599 but somewhere around fifty percent or more of the world trades. 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:20.680 So wow. You know, you have to recognize that the 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.039 traditional growth of these crops were in areas where they 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:28.200 consumed them, right Turkey, Middle East, India. India is the 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:31.919 biggest giant in this business, you know, with all of 0:05:31.920 --> 0:05:34.039 the vegetarians. You know, you look at one point three 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:38.960 billion people, four hundred and fifty million vegetarians. Vegetable protein 0:05:39.080 --> 0:05:42.120 is essential for the diet of countries, you know, in 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.840 the emerging market. So you know, they grow them and 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:47.800 they consume them. Well, what was missing was global supply 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:51.600 in nations that could grow them but not consume them, 0:05:51.600 --> 0:05:54.520 but export them. And so that's where you know Canada 0:05:54.520 --> 0:05:58.520 came into the play, Australia, the United States. Now we 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:02.560 have emerging origins like Extan, Russia, Ukraine. You know, the 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.400 the global consumption of these crops are over one hundred 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.559 million tons. Now, you know, because you know you're talking 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:11.880 about the traditional crops that we consume. Let's let's talk 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.200 about the traditional diet of the world. Let's do it rice. 0:06:14.920 --> 0:06:18.840 You know, rice is six percent protein, corn eight percent protein, 0:06:19.480 --> 0:06:24.920 lentils twenty two percent protein, faba beans thirty four percent protein, 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:28.680 chickbas twenty six percent protein. I mean, these crops are 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:31.480 not in the same class when it comes to protein availability, 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.039 and the world is in a global protein deficit. So 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:36.640 you know, we can we always forget one thing. We 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:39.880 talk a lot about energy and energy security. We talk 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.320 about you know, oil and gas, but we have to 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:46.560 recognize that protein and you know, diets are human energy. 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:48.960 And so when we look at that there's a protein 0:06:49.000 --> 0:06:53.480 deficit in the world, it's causing major socioeconomic problems. You know, 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:56.520 let's look at a country like India. Eighteen percent of 0:06:56.600 --> 0:07:01.720 children in India are stunted due to protein deficiency. Right, 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.039 the world has you know, eight hundred billion people who 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.479 are malnourished on a daily basis, over two billion people 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.560 who are food insecure on a daily basis. So this 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:15.640 has become one of society's global challenges. Ten billion people 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:20.000 by twenty fifty quantifies it to a statistic where in 0:07:20.040 --> 0:07:22.720 the next forty years we have to produce the same 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:24.800 amount of food that the world produced in the last 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:29.280 ten thousand years of civilization. Just wrap your head around that, 0:07:29.800 --> 0:07:32.840 go back ten thousand years, go head forty years. You've 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:35.720 got to equal food production. And that's only if we 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.000 curb food waste and we actually can store the crops 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.480 that we harvest. So you know, when you look at it, 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:43.720 it's a global challenge. And land and water are not 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:47.880 being created, so those are the scarcest resources in the world. 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:52.720 And Canada is blessed with a northern hemisphere. You know 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.640 that ultimately is more resilient on climate change. We have 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:58.080 arable land and water, and we have the best farmers 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.120 in the world with technology and innovation driving sector. Those 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:04.760 are all recipes for what I would call a generational 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:06.560 economic driver for this country. 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:11.440 Joe, could you say that Canada has been blessed in 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:13.520 growing grains? Do you get it? 0:08:14.120 --> 0:08:14.400 Okay? 0:08:14.640 --> 0:08:15.680 I get it. 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:20.480 I'm I'm sure you've heard of. 0:08:20.520 --> 0:08:24.520 All over over theres. I'm glad you brought that up. Actually, 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.400 though about the calorie as the original unit of energy, 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:30.280 that was important. You know, we've never had him on 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:32.800 the podcast, but vaklov Smil talks about that when he 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:36.120 talks about the history of energy and just these calculations 0:08:36.160 --> 0:08:38.840 in the beginning, Okay, how many calories did a firmer 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.559 have to expend to produce this much land, and then 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:46.360 so forth, and how many calories were produced and so forth. 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:48.920 So just even thinking about it from that equation is 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.679 a very like sort of important, I think, Lens, why 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:57.040 don't you just describe the actual role of AGT foods. 0:08:57.240 --> 0:08:59.880 Where do you sit in the supply chain and dist 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.079 Do you have farms yourself, do you work with farmers? 0:09:03.400 --> 0:09:05.840 Do you contract with them? Like talk about where you 0:09:05.920 --> 0:09:09.120 sit and how a lentil grown in Saskatchewan gets to 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:10.640 a consumer in say, India. 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:15.320 Well, the entire business plan was set up modern state 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.080 of the art processing infrastructure in the areas where we 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.320 grow these crops. So we contract directly with farmers. We 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:26.280 are the ones who transform their products into saleable you know, 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:31.760 human consumption products. So we own factories in Canada, the US, Australia, 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:35.760 South Africa, Turkey. So I started with one small, little 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:39.320 factory in Regina. We now have forty six manufacturing and 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:43.040 processing facilities and five continents around the world. I started 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:44.800 in the basement of my house. There's now thirty six 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:47.280 hundred employees. Wow. So you know what we do is 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.840 we take those crops, we clean them, we size them, 0:09:50.880 --> 0:09:54.240 we peel them, we split them, we can them, we 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:58.800 package them, we put them out and we fraction them 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:01.600 into protein starts, f flowers. I mean, we put them 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:05.120 into food products. We do the full range of value adding. 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.600 And in the scale of our business now you know, 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:11.880 let's say around three point two billion in revenue this year, 0:10:12.600 --> 0:10:15.920 we become a major global supply chain in this particular 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.600 segment of the business. In fact, if I look at 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:22.760 you know, containerized agricultural Shipments AGT would be among the 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:26.559 two or three largest containerized shippers of agriproducts in the 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:29.160 entire world. So you know, we shipped to one hundred 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:30.560 and ten countries actively. 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:32.880 And how does it get there? Like what is the okay, 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.360 So from a farmer in Saskatchewan, how many links are 0:10:35.440 --> 0:10:36.440 there on that chain. 0:10:36.720 --> 0:10:40.719 So we'll take it into let's say a farmer in Eston, Saskatchewan, 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:44.559 We'll deliver to our location at Aston, Okay. We will 0:10:44.600 --> 0:10:47.160 then take that grain. We'll put it into a railcar 0:10:47.320 --> 0:10:51.360 that we own. So those owned railcars then go into 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:56.080 the CN rail system. They get transported to a port facility. 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.280 Let's say I just did one as an example, and 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:01.040 on May the sixth, we're going to ship a vessel 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:04.800 of lentils to Turkey. So those Eston farmers would have 0:11:04.840 --> 0:11:07.880 filled the railcars. We're shipping it to thunder Bay. At 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:10.680 thunder Bay, we have an ocean terminal where we'll load 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:15.439 a vessel. That vessel will transport twenty one thousand tons 0:11:16.040 --> 0:11:18.840 of lentils that will go to Turkey. They will be 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.720 offloaded in the port of Meerson, Turkey, which is in 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:26.079 the southern Mediterranean. We have factory seven kilometers for the port. 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.360 Will peel them, split them, polish them, package them, and 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.800 then they'll be shipped to Iraq. They'll be shipped into 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:37.000 the Gaza refugees. They'll be shipped into the Middle East 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:40.520 region and they'll be consumed locally in the entire region 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:43.640 on the food side. So you know where we play 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:45.920 is in the entire supply chain, taking it right from 0:11:45.960 --> 0:11:50.440 the farmer right through to the distribution directly onto the 0:11:50.480 --> 0:11:53.680 consumer shelf. And you know, that was the strategy that 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:56.240 we wanted to to build out. It gives us resiliency. 0:11:56.600 --> 0:11:59.559 I was going to ask, is it normal for agricultural 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.400 company is to actually own their own transportation capital. You 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:09.079 mentioned train cars just then. That seems extremely vertically integrated. 0:12:09.360 --> 0:12:12.720 Well, yeah, actually I was definitely not, you know, the 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.960 normal thought and that In twenty fifteen, I decided to 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:21.360 build a transportation business, and so we bought six hundred 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:25.800 and fifty kilometers of short line railway. We bought the 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:29.320 Saskatchewan government grain car fleet. So when the Canadian Wheatboard 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:33.439 was dismantled, the Saskatchewan flagged grain cars, I bought them. 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:37.720 We bought thirteen locomotives. We set up our own transportation infrastructure, 0:12:38.280 --> 0:12:41.200 linked it in a long term agreement to Cnrail, and 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.400 you know we're able to access it through ocean port infrastructure. 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:48.840 We actually took that business in twenty twenty five in January, 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.440 and we sold it for one hundred and ninety two 0:12:52.440 --> 0:12:55.559 million dollars to an infrastructure fund in the United States, 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.160 and then we contracted them back to provide US service 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:02.120 for the next twenty year. So you are correct. We 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:06.080 actually built out a transportation infrastructure that didn't exist to 0:13:06.160 --> 0:13:09.240 handle these kinds of commodities, and then we found a 0:13:09.280 --> 0:13:11.640 partner to run it for the long term and it 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.120 gives us a competitive advantage to get our products to market. 0:13:30.160 --> 0:13:31.760 I have a question. You know, you mentioned that the 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:35.960 only scarce resources are land and water. Can you talk 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.480 about yields on an acre or yields on a given 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:44.040 farm today versus when you got started in the industry, 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:46.880 and how what you've seen in terms of technology and 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:49.479 productivity growth at the land level. 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:57.000 Massive massive transformation, So precision agriculture, digital infrastructure has transformed 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.640 the productivity of Canada. And you know, when I was 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.040 a kid growing up in that little village of Davidson, 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:04.920 twelve hundred people in the middle of Saskatchewan. You know, 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:08.120 as an immigrant Turkish family, the farmer would go out 0:14:08.160 --> 0:14:10.720 and kick the dirt. He would put his hand into 0:14:10.760 --> 0:14:12.959 the soil. He'd have his wife with him and say 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:15.360 what do you think should we go? And she'd say, yeah, 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:17.959 let's go, and they would go and start seeding. Today, 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.840 we're soil sampling. We're analyzing the soil and the nitrogen 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:27.120 in the soil. There's precision weather stations that are measuring moisture. 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:31.600 We have zero minimum tillage where GPS systems are giving 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:37.400 the farmer the exact placement of seed fertilizer in a 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:41.760 single pass without breaking the soil using air channels. We're 0:14:41.800 --> 0:14:46.400 putting the seed in a precision basis to maximize the yield, 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:49.720 to lower the amount of nitrogen fertilizer being used in 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:53.600 all crop rotations, which ultimately saves inputs and lowers the 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.400 carbon intensity of our agriculture. Our yield curves have been 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.720 massively increasing, you know, to where if I look at 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.560 the next decade ahead in Saskatchewan, I'm forecasting seven to 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:08.600 ten million additional tons of grain from the same amount 0:15:08.600 --> 0:15:11.040 of acres that are being seated. You know, that is 0:15:11.080 --> 0:15:12.160 a massive. 0:15:11.760 --> 0:15:14.560 Wait, what's the baseline, what's the base? Seven to ten million? 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:15.560 On top of how many. 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:18.440 We're growing about thirty million tons, so we're gonna have 0:15:18.480 --> 0:15:20.600 another seven to ten million. I mean, you're talking about 0:15:20.880 --> 0:15:24.520 twenty to thirty percent yield increase over the next seven years. 0:15:24.960 --> 0:15:27.520 I mean, when I chaired the National Strategy Table for 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.440 Agriculture and Food for the Government of Canada. We set 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:34.200 a target in twenty nineteen that the agriculture sector in 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:37.840 our country would grow from forty five billion to eighty 0:15:37.880 --> 0:15:41.400 five billion of exports in a five year cycle, and 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:44.240 domestic agricultural output would grow from one hundred and twenty 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.000 billion to one hundred and forty five billion. And we 0:15:47.560 --> 0:15:50.560 reached that target in three years. I mean, what sector 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:55.960 of our economy can deliver sixty five billion of growth 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:59.840 in three years. Agriculture did that in this country. So 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:04.560 the tangibility of that opportunity of global food insecurity, the 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:08.560 productivity of precision agriculture in our country, and you know, 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.480 the ability to get our products to market. You know, 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.520 this is the recipe that I believe is going to 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:19.000 be a big part of the government economic agenda going forward. So, 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:21.000 you know, we talk a lot about natural resources that 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.600 are in conflict in certain mindsets, whether it be oil 0:16:24.600 --> 0:16:28.360 and gas or mining. There's very little controversy on the 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:32.760 growth of the natural resource sector in agriculture. So from 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.600 that perspective, I see that as being a key opportunity 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:38.920 for this country, you know, and one that I'm very 0:16:38.960 --> 0:16:41.400 excited about for the next twenty years of my career. 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:45.640 So I take the point about yields having been improved. 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:48.480 But at the same time, there's a lot of talk 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:52.200 about soil exhaustion, right And one of the reasons this 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:54.760 is on my mind is because I was gardening over 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:58.720 the weekend on an old farm property and the soil 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:02.360 is just terrible. It's basically dust like, there's no tilth 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:06.120 I think I found one earthworm in like six hours 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:10.320 of digging. How big a problem is soil depletion? And 0:17:10.520 --> 0:17:13.640 you touched on this earlier, But what role can lentils 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:15.040 and beans play in that? 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.240 Well? And then that's actually the key. The key is 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:22.639 is that farmers in Western Canada are now practicing a 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.840 sustainable three crop rotation. So one year they'll grow that 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:28.800 wheat like when I was a kid, the next year 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.440 they'll grow an oil seed like canola, and then the 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.520 year after that they'll plant the lagoome that will fix 0:17:34.560 --> 0:17:39.440 the nitrogen. By using zero minimum tillage, we're conserving soil moisture, 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:43.760 we're managing pests and the health of the soil, and 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:49.240 we're actually using farming practices where without tilling we're returning 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.560 biomass into the soil. So from that perspective, when I 0:17:52.600 --> 0:17:55.840 look at the sustainability of soil health, the farmers in 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.119 Western Canada have gotten And you know, that is something 0:17:58.160 --> 0:18:02.680 that bothers me is people talk about how regenerative agriculture 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.640 is such a key part. Well, in Western Canada, we've 0:18:05.640 --> 0:18:09.080 been doing regenerative agriculture for the last forty years. This 0:18:09.160 --> 0:18:14.239 is something that is actually foundational to the success of 0:18:14.280 --> 0:18:17.359 the Western Canadian and I mean the Canadian agriculture sector 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:19.359 in general. So you know, I think that when I 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:23.240 look at soil depletion and soil health, it's about farmers 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:27.159 pushing the wrong rotations, growing crops on top of crops, 0:18:27.200 --> 0:18:30.400 the same crops. You know, ultimately, if you don't rotate, 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:34.720 you have pests that multiply, you have diseases that ultimately 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.399 get resistant to any type of management. So, you know, 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:43.280 this kind of diversity of our agricultural system is one 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:45.600 that not only has to be celebrated, but it's actually 0:18:45.880 --> 0:18:49.000 yielding that yield gain. So you know, not only is 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.879 our soil health at a peak, but it's also something 0:18:51.880 --> 0:18:53.679 I want to be clear, we can't take for granted. 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.879 We have to be continuously innovating to make sure that 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.879 we maintain that. I mean, I say, the canola fields 0:18:59.880 --> 0:19:02.560 of Saskatchewan are the same as the oil fields of 0:19:02.560 --> 0:19:06.840 Saudi Arabia, only every year it replenishes naturally. So we 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:09.280 can take crops, we can produce renewable fuels, we can 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:13.000 take crops, extract protein and feed the world. But we 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:16.680 have to make sure foundationally that soil health is at 0:19:16.720 --> 0:19:19.520 the forefront. And I think it is in our farmer's 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:21.679 minds and then the practices that they do. 0:19:22.840 --> 0:19:26.320 So you know, you've described this global supply chain that 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:28.879 exists in the fact that you can get the lentil 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.520 product from a farmer in Saskatchewan all the way to 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:37.439 a consumer in India or Iraq or Turkey, et cetera. Obviously, 0:19:37.800 --> 0:19:42.240 we're having this conversation, at least on the US side, 0:19:42.320 --> 0:19:46.800 with this turn against globalized supply chains, globalized trade and 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:49.880 so forth. Talk to us a little bit about how 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.439 you see the state of US Canada agg trade, or 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.240 give us the sort of the short history of the 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:59.199 various turns of the dial there and how some of 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:01.040 these conversations are affecting your business. 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:03.200 Look, I think We've got to recognize one thing. We 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.480 have a president in the United States today who's just 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:09.239 very loud and using tariffs as the mechanism to not 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:14.520 only provoke conversation but to drive policy protectionists. Agricultural policies 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:17.080 in the United States are not something new, you know. 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.679 I always have to remind people that country of origin 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:24.800 labeling was a Barack Obama policy that you know, continued 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:28.000 through the Trump administration and into the Biden administration. So 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.560 you know, every government in the world, agriculture is the 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:35.360 most political business in the entire globe because farmers have 0:20:35.440 --> 0:20:40.320 to be protected by governments that are elected. Yet, food 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:46.400 inflation and food security are paramount considerations in the health, wealth, 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:50.800 and security of every nation in the world. So when 0:20:50.800 --> 0:20:53.040 we look at it, let's not forget one thing. When 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:56.600 a baby is hungry, they cry, When an eighteen year 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:00.439 old man is unemployed in hungry, they protest. So you know, 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.520 ultimately a big part of civil obedience in the world 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:07.760 is available food, and that growing food insecurity is one 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:09.520 that I think, you know, is going to be paramount. 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.280 So when I look at even US policy, look, food 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:18.000 security is a foundational part of US intelligence and foreign policy. 0:21:18.840 --> 0:21:21.280 And so from that perspective, you know, I believe that 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:26.720 agricultural trade will have to be preserved as a part 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:30.560 of the overall policy framework. So you know, we're going 0:21:30.640 --> 0:21:33.200 to see tariffs, We're going to see protectionist measures being 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.760 more prevalent in the world. But I do think that 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:41.879 ultimately food are going to be concessionary items. Governments are 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.560 going to allow them to flow. Governments will use tariffs 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:47.800 to protect their farmers when they need to at times 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:51.639 when they harvest their crops, but they need food available. 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:54.720 And you know the COVID post supply chain disruptions and 0:21:54.760 --> 0:21:58.040 food lines and food inflation, and you know, food being 0:21:58.040 --> 0:22:00.000 a big driver of that inflationary environment in the world 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.560 world is something that everybody recognizes can't continue. On the 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:07.480 US policy side, domestic agriculture in the US and Canada 0:22:07.520 --> 0:22:09.840 are very integrated. So if I look at you know, 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:13.000 the pasta on the shelves of the US consumer come 0:22:13.119 --> 0:22:17.320 largely from Durham wheat in Western Canada. The overall integration 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:21.800 of our livestock sectors, cropping sectors are there, and ultimately 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:26.280 I think we're going to see further integration. We're going 0:22:26.359 --> 0:22:31.000 to see you know, getting over this current protectionist conflict. 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:38.120 Leyden dialogue to recognizing that the Americas integration and more 0:22:38.200 --> 0:22:41.639 reliance on each other as nations in the Americas is 0:22:41.680 --> 0:22:44.359 going to be part of economic prosperity. And you know, 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:45.439 I think that, you know, if I look at the 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:50.119 Trump administration, you know, kind of policy on Canada. We 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.640 have to just remind everybody very clearly to have comm heads. 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:57.280 Thirty one US states have Canada as their largest trading partner. 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:01.199