One of the things I've learned is that the technology that is being developed and what has evolved from the first release of GM technologies 13 or 14 years ago has dramatically improved. With regard to the ability to control it and contain it, there are some very fascinating technologies that are available now--gene silencing, terminator genes. There are all kinds of things that can be done.
But one of the things people need to understand right now has to do with the proposition for developing a new GM variety. For canola, the companies we've talked to say it's going to cost $100 million to introduce a new GM variety. So the trait has to have huge economic impact in order for them to pursue it. That's why we haven't seen a lot of new varieties of GM being developed in new technology. Companies will say that you need 14 million acres of a trait to justify that kind of investment in it.
So there are all kinds of technologies that are available that will make it safer, but there's also a lot of biosafety research going on. Linda Hall at the University of Alberta has done some very good studies in terms of pollen flow and even understanding the probability. Zero just doesn't exist. Zero tolerance does not exist. If anybody tells you that it does, they're not being truthful. That's a reality you have to accept. But the containment can be improved, and it has been improved, I think dramatically, by new technologies that are being evolved. I think that by shifting an emphasis and a focus even more onto that, you could probably even take these to a whole other level from where they are today. But they've certainly made a lot of progress in the last 20 years. We see more and more people....
One of the things that Genome Canada has contributed to Canadian agriculture is that they insist on having a GELS component to their research programs, to look at the ethical, legal, and environmental implications of their research. That is a very interesting and I think very valuable approach, because while you're advancing the natural sciences, you're also looking at the social and environmental impacts. I think that's a very solid approach. I think because of that program there are a lot of researchers who have grown up and developed, and we have more expertise now in that kind of research, on the environmental impact and the biosafety side of things. I think that's one of the lasting contributions that Genome Canada has offered to Canadian agriculture.