Research is a long-term investment, and I'm glad you recognize that the research percentage is down. I deal a lot with public sector breeders, university, and AAFC. Most of the public researchers are over retirement age and are not being replaced—I'm talking about this government's public researchers—and the universities are cutting back.
I deal with new varieties. It's a ten-year-plus, long-term investment, but it's not fancy. It's not glorified. It's not “health benefit”. It's not “food additive”. It's not the buzzwords. It's basic research. That's what's suffering. If we could say, “We can put soybean in the car tomorrow”, then we could get all kinds of funding, because it's fancy, and it's a buzzword. But it's not basic research.
When we get into food quality of soybeans with the Harrow AAFC—they do world-renowned quality analysis for soybeans—we cannot sell any varieties overseas without having them to back it up. They're recognized the world over. So we need to keep that going.
Yes, research is very important, but it's not the fancy stuff; sometimes it's the basic stuff.