Thanks, Gordon, and I'd like to thank all of you for attending today and sharing your thoughts on this important industry.
Gordon, my first question is for you. You talk about 69% of Canadians supporting the move to replace fossil fuels in part with renewable fuels, and then you recite that 76% of Canadians approved of the new law. Being new to Parliament and new to this committee, I need to dispel in my own mind some of the myths that may be out there.
You've tried to dispel one of those myths by saying that it really isn't a challenge to our food supply because we had a surplus in corn this year. I'm not completely convinced by that argument, because there may be years when we don't have a surplus in corn and in fact the fuel industry will be in competition with the food industry for corn as food. I'm hoping that you folks will focus on non-food agricultural products, other cellulose like switchgrass, etc.
And can you talk to me about the environmental impact? There's clearly a proposition out there that the GHGs that are emitted in the farming and creation of these fuels exceed the benefits from using the fuels. Could you talk to me about that at length?