Agriculture committee  Well, Alex admitted that there is lots of potential for conventional varieties that are doing better. If you refer back to part of Kelvin's presentation, he openly admitted that there are varieties he is currently producing that have not increased his bottom line. It has not made a difference in the financial gain of our producers, but it has made a gain to Monsanto and its shareholders.

Agriculture committee  I'll speak first. The gene cannot be contained, period. It is a perennial plant. When that alfalfa is in flower and a pollinator comes and lands on that flower and then goes to a non-GMO plant, the seeds produced from that plant will be Roundup Ready. As stated in the information packages that I've provided, Cal/West Seeds has approached me.

Agriculture committee  I agree that it would be, like I say, a safety valve. You have to understand that when we start talking about alfalfa, we're talking about a perennial crop. To my knowledge, it's the second GM perennial crop that has been introduced, Roundup Ready bentgrass being the first, which has been banned for sale for 10 years to 12 years in the United States also, strictly due to contamination of unwanted seeds in undesired areas, in the public areas.

Agriculture committee  We agree that there's a lot of great new technology coming down the road. You have to realize that a lot of that technology is realistically 10 to 20 years away. That's good technology. That technology that you speak of, the golden rice, is improving the fitness of the plant. It is much different from the issue we're dealing with here.

Agriculture committee  They're raising the flag...?

Agriculture committee  If this was in the back of a half-ton out on the Prairies, we'd be doing all right, but...

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Monsanto and Forage Genetics International have developed Roundup Ready alfalfa. Forage Genetics International has plans to release the GM variety to Canadian producers in the very near future. This event was approved by CFIA in 2005 and approved in the United States prior to that; however, since that time, Roundup Ready alfalfa has been banned for sale in the United States.

Agriculture committee  Good afternoon. I would like to thank the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food for allowing Imperial Seed the opportunity to address Bill C-474, which would require that an analysis of potential harm to export markets be conducted before the sale of any new genetically engineered seed is permitted.