I think the health issues unfortunately are something that are a little bit like tobacco; it takes a long time before we wake up and find out whether or not we're right or wrong. I have no idea what that answer's going to be.
What I do know is that between now and the time that science is able to give us some kind of definitive answer on that, I have to remain profitable. People have to feel good and safe about the food they're eating, so in the meantime I hope that we haven't made any colossal mistakes in the way we brought forward the science.
We're hoping as farmers that the science that is truly behind working with the DNA of any living organism can be understood and manipulated to our positive benefit, both for health and for economics. In the short term, we have really only been successful economically. But when you go to farm meetings, you hear a lot of reports about new exciting research that is focused on the health that the product will bring to the consumer, the person who is actually going to eat this food, and that's the part we're really excited about. That's the part that to us is where we want to be in 20, 50, or 100 years.
We see the requirement for market analysis as a part of all of that. I think that right around the corner there are all kinds of science that people are going to say is the best thing and they want it badly. Yes, it's being provided to us through technology that is used to generate today's GMO products, which is the combining of herbicide tolerance and the seeds, but that's strictly an economic approach.
There is a huge potential in our scientific community to bring us positive benefits. Farmers are waiting for those, and the market will say... Just as the Canola council does now, we'll be able to go to the world with, say, a wheat that is so far out in front of what they've ever produced, a wheat that is healthy for everybody who is going to consume a loaf of bread, that they'll say yes, it is GMO produced, but they'll accept that specific product on these wonderful market advantages.
That's the advantage we want. That's why we're in support of Bill C-474 and the producer- and stakeholder-controlled regulations that would be behind it. Those two things have to go hand in hand.