Thanks very much, Mr. Chair.
And thank you for taking time out of your day to come in front of the committee today to talk about biotechnology and how it can impact our agricultural sector.
One point I would make, of course, is that although genetically modified products are part of biotechnology, they're not all of biotechnology. One of the things we're going to have to keep in mind as a committee is that—we talk about GM products, of course—we not focus only on GM products, because there's a lot more going on in the biotechnology sector.
There are the two extremes. The one extreme would be that biotech should rule everything, and then the other extreme would be that it shouldn't touch anything. In between is, I think, where the committee is, and the question is, where does biotechnology help agriculture and where does it not help agriculture?
With some of the discussion we had today.... Certainly, Mr. Schmitz, you brought up, for example, the fact that the consumer has an important role to play. This is a discussion that we've had. Science has to dominate the argument, because the fundamental question is whether the end product is safe for human consumption, yes or no. Science plays a very fundamental role in that, and as a result scientific assessments, scientific procedures to determine that question are extremely important.
But the other side of it is of course consumer acceptance.
Mr. Schmitz, you mentioned trying to get consumer opinion on this matter. Did you have particular mechanisms in mind, a coherent and cogent way of doing that?