Just as a reminder, the reference margin under the current AgriStability program is based on five years. What we use is called an Olympic average. We look at the previous five years, drop the high and low, and average the remaining three years. That becomes the producer support level going forward.
I've heard the 10-year comment. In fact, the five years was something requested by industry. The industry said that if they had their druthers they would prefer a five-year reference margin, because if you go to 10 years it's not reflective of the current operation. You get too far from where the operation is today. Certainly, the grain producers of today would not want a 10-year average reference margin. They would much prefer an Olympic average margin.
Anyway, industry asked for five years. But we also have to meet our WTO commitments, and a five-year reference margin would not allow us to report AgriStability payments in a disaster tier as green, so we had the option of using the Olympic average or the previous three years. We did an extensive analysis and found that the Olympic average tracks closest with the five-year average, and that's how we ended up with the AgriStability program.
So the 10-year average is something that would depend on the sector. Some sectors would say, “Yes, that's better because I had stronger years 10 years ago or seven years ago”. But others would be saying, “No, I'd rather be going with my last three or four years, because they're my best”. When we consulted with industry, they felt that five years was best.