Quebec beef and veal producers support the generally recognized definition that food sovereignty is the right of peoples to define their own agricultural and food policy, to protect and regulate domestic agricultural production and trade in order to achieve sustainable development objectives, and to determine the extent to which they want to be self-reliant by eliminating the dumping of products on their markets.

Food sovereignty does not oppose trade, provided that trading policies and practices serve people' right to local, safe and ecologically sustainable agricultural and food production, carried out under fair conditions that respect the right of all partners, whether farmers, processors or distributors, to decent working conditions and income.

At the 2007 General Convention of the Union des producteurs agricoles, the delegates, including the representatives of the Fédération des producteurs de bovins, voted unanimously to make food sovereignty the spearhead of a proposed new social contract, that they intend to promote to their fellow citizens and to governments. Quebec farmers confirm that food sovereignty is the fairest and most equitable vision for the future of agriculture. Food sovereignty means feeding our people first.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow: innovating to feed our people is the slogan of Quebec cattle producers - essentially, their distinctive brand.

At all times, thanks to solid collective values, cattle producers have chosen the right ingredients to reinvent themselves and find bold solutions to solve ever more complex problems. The creation of structuring partnerships is consistent with this approach.

This is a winning home-made recipe that has helped farmers produce healthy, high-quality meat, at the lowest possible cost, while contributing to Quebec's economic, social and sustainable development. These products meet consumers' needs and expectations better than ever. In 2008, Quebec cattle producers want nothing more than to be able to continue to feed their people.

"Government policy has found the secret of starving those who feed the rest of us by cultivating the land." Voltaire 18^th century.

Two centuries ago, the French philosopher François Marie Arouet Voltaire was already alerting the public to the serious financial difficulties encountered by farmers who feed the people.