Thank you, Dr. Klein.
I want to start off by saying that this committee and every member of this committee strongly wants to find the path forward for our cattle and our hog sectors, which are being devastated at this point in time. They're being devastated for several reasons. High feed prices are not the only reason, and I know you know that. You're not saying that they are.
When you talk about Iowa and you talk about politics and you talk about George Bush's foreign policy, the fact of the matter is the United States of America's largest net import of oil is from Canada. I tend to disagree with the Middle East thing a little bit.
Let's talk about Iowa, since you're talking about it right now. Talking politics, there isn't a politician—and you mentioned George Bush's plan to go forward in the state of the union message—who wants to win Iowa who would ever talk about taking away this industry from Iowa. It is something the people of Iowa and the people of the midwestern United States are very strongly protective of, because they see it as being hugely beneficial to their communities and to their economic benefit and their standard of living as a whole.
Obviously that's another side of this, and I think we should look into it a little bit more. But I think and I believe that if we act responsibly with this industry and we move forward with this, it could be a huge contributor to rural development in Canada, in places like Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where they haven't experienced the spinoffs and economic wealth that we have in Alberta.
I appreciate you coming out and having this conversation with us today.