I went through the rBGH fight--in fact, I led it--whenever it was, in the late 1990s. We heard the same thing you said, Steve--that investment would dry up if we dared ban it. I remember Monsanto sitting in the room and the lobbyist phone calls and MPs being taken out for meals. My God, there was going to be a huge disaster. Has Canada been hurt because we didn't have rBGH? I don't think so.
In fact, I believe Walmart right now is saying they don't want milk produced with rBGH in their stores. I maintain that there are good GMOs and bad GMOs. I think we, as the public, have to err on the side of caution. With everything I'm hearing on alfalfa in particular, I think we have to err on the side of caution. I guess it's a question of how you find that balance and how you establish the regulatory system to weed out the good from the bad.
Peter, do you want to answer just one other question on that area? I know from the rBGH fight that trying to get information out of Health Canada was like pulling hens' teeth. In fact, they were on the side of Monsanto. You couldn't get information from them. How do we, in our position, set up a system in which you get public independent research that isn't from the company doing its own and promoting its own self-interest, but is research that has no axes to grind and no favours to make?