I'm happy to take a first stab at the question.
There are a couple of things, and I could spend an inordinate amount of the committee's time refuting what my friend from the National Farmers Union is saying, because unfortunately his statistics are all over the map.
To answer your question, Mr. Steckle, let me give you some real world data. Right now, and my comments will be directed at corn and ethanol for a second, only about 10% of the corn that we grow today globally goes into consumer foodstuff. In Canada alone, when you take in all grains and oilseeds, we're roughly at about 50 million, and half of that finds its way into the export market. All we're simply saying to Canadian farmers is you're going to have an option for your crops that can be both food, because we produce more than we consume, and to service the biofuels market.
Number two, you are absolutely right. When you look at where the growth is going in the United States, the policy objective that the CRFA has been advocating is not only do we want to grow the mandates within Canada and therefore develop the production capacity to meet those mandates in Canada, but we are also looking at the opportunity of what is happening south of the border. You make an excellent point. We do not want to be in a situation.... When you look at the 36 billion gallon target that the U.S. has set for itself, they recognize that of that target they have the capacity to meet about 15 billion to 18 billion gallons with current feedstock. The rest of that is going to have to come from next generation ethanol production, or it's going to have to come from imports, and we have the capacity to meet that here in Canada.
To look at what is truly a significant public policy objective, wouldn't it be fantastic that we build not only the industry here in Canada to meet the domestic requirement of the mandates that have been set--5% and 2%, and Mr. Easter talked about going to 10% and 5%, which this industry supports--but absolutely look at south of the border and ensure that what does not happen is having the feedstock simply make its way into the United States, by quite frankly having the biofuel get exported into the United States to help meet the target they are setting? That's a win-win that I think this committee would support unanimously.