Thank you, Chair.
First, thank you very much for being here.
What tremendous testimony we've had this morning on this subject, which is critical, I think, to agriculture and to consumers. Consumers are the end winners in these types of discussions and in the products that result.
As I was mentioning before, biotechnology is not well understood. There are a lot of misconceptions, and that's one of the reasons we're having this study: to lift the veil and have a bit of public debate on this, so that people see that biotechnology is not necessarily GM, and even if it is GM, we don't need to feel threatened by it. We have processes and policies in place.
I think this is a very important tour we're doing as the agriculture committee. I think it's disappointing that the NDP are not here. We have a Bloc member, we have two Liberal members, we have Conservative members, and the NDP pulled out. I say that because we've had just a bit of discussion on Bill C-474, and it's very focused on GM only. Alex Atamanenko, who is the NDP MP, is a strong proponent of his bill. To me he's the one who should be hearing what we're discussing this morning, or at least one of his colleagues should be here to bring the word back to him about some of this great discussion we're having. I think it's unfortunate that they're not here.
Mr. Wartman, you made a comment that sound science should trump politics. Sound science is very important and should take a leading role over politics when we're talking about biotechnology. I'm wondering if you might be able to elaborate on that. Is there a particular issue that comes to mind that leads you to make that statement?