Thank you for the question.
I think your points are very valid. GMOs are likely here to stay and that is why a good regulatory system is ever more important.
The first thing that will derail biotechnology in Canada is problems associated with unanticipated risks that weren't regulated. Gene flow, escaping, segregation problems, market harm--all of that was caused by a regulatory system that didn't anticipate the risks and was incapable of dealing with them when they were confronted with them. We know Monsanto was holding the trigger around whether or not Roundup Ready wheat was going to be introduced, and the whole regulatory system and industry were sitting around wondering if this was the right approach.
For the most part, industry is looking for solutions that will allow them to have input. It doesn't mean that all crops will be turned away, because there's a market evaluation pillar within the regulatory system. It means that certain crops might not be ready to go to market or may never go to market, but not all of them. If you look at canola, for example, many important benefits were associated with canola that likely wouldn't have triggered the same kind of market problems that wheat did. There is diversity within the biotech crops, and I think the regulatory system can handle that, if it's set up correctly.
With respect to consultation, this is the work that I do: including stakeholders in the regulatory process. We got funding from Canada and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to bring people from the farm level, from the kitchen tables and coffee alleys of western Canada, to engage a process that allowed the numbers to emerge and the views of these people to come up to a level that I can present to you and give you numbers and give you what people are saying. But this takes time--my Ph.D. took six years--and it takes money. Just because we set up organizations to consult doesn't necessarily mean that the real views of people on the ground are being heard, and we really need to cultivate that.