I just wanted to raise a point before you gavel the meeting.
When we were down in the United States, Mr. Easter and I had a conversation that I think would be worth pursuing. We had met with representatives from the slaughterhouse and packing industry. The message we got from them regarding COOL and the implementation of COOL, and the impact it was having on their sector, what was driving their sector, was completely different from what we had received from other sources. On the one hand, they were saying that their slaughterhouses and packers were not going to implement the voluntary requirements of COOL. They left us with the impression that they had no intention of doing so. We had heard that, no, they were, but there was confusion, and the confusion was actually driving down the costs they were paying for our cattle. It was turning off our exportation of pork. Both Mr. Easter and I were saying that these were two very different messages we were getting.
We're wrapping up here before we get to the end of the year, and I think it would be worthwhile having witnesses come in so we can explore this before we break for the summer. We picked up what I would call a significant discrepancy here, and I think it would be useful to get packers back in here before the summer so that we can explore this in more depth and find out what is going on, and what is driving down the price they're paying for our red meat, if in fact they're not implementing the voluntary letter of COOL.