Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Agriculture is not my specialty. Generally, I focus on international trade, but we do often talk about agriculture. You seemed to be wondering about the relationship between health and agricultural and agri-food products. One dictum states that we are what we eat, and in my view, the relationship is indeed that direct. You have talked about innovation and science, two things that of course involve the production of primary products, but they also involve the processing of those products.
We also use biotechnology, genetic manipulation and chemicals in the production process. In international trade, we know that with the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the agriculture and agri-food goal is not to feed the population but to be productive, make money, export, and increase the trade balance as much as possible—in other words, the goal is to compete with other countries but not necessarily by applying the same rules they do.
For example, we know that the United States authorize the use of a fair number of chemicals that we do not authorize here. Take ice cream as an example of a processed product. As my colleague was saying earlier, in Quebec we can barely find ice cream made with real milk and real cream, like in the past. The products are all modified now.
Given the close relationship between health and nutrition, to what extent can we say that, in the long term, the biotechnologies and other sciences that modify products so profoundly with the stated goal of making agriculture profitable will not have negative impacts on health?