Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
One point that I'd like to touch on very quickly is the link between rendering of animal by-products and the importance to the agricultural community of having that value added into biodiesel.
Very simply, the rendering process involves taking from the meat production process the parts of animals we don't eat. Every year billions of pounds of these products are not used and need to be recycled. We've taken one of the products from that, animal fats, and turned it into renewable fuel at our plant in Ville Ste. Catherine, Quebec. It's a 35-million-litre-a-year biodiesel plant, the first of its kind in Canada, and we're value-adding to products we used to export to other markets. We're bringing that value and keeping it in Canada.
It's very important to understand that this benefits farmers. With the feed rule changes that may be coming, with specified risk material around cattle, it's important that we have value-added ways to use those fats and oils. Without that, there's the potential of lost value to farmers. So the rendering process will still be a way to treat that material, and this biodiesel is becoming the way to turn that material into a value-added product, keeping value in farmers' pockets instead of having charges and disposal fees. It's also taking the by-products from other farmers, such as pork and poultry farmers, and keeping value in those materials as well.
So we would ask that as the committee considers renewable fuel standards going forward, you understand that the rendered process and biodiesel are very important to the farm community.
Thank you.