Thank you very much for that. I agree.
In your paper, which came to us earlier, you talked about the Danes saying “here it is by regulation”, whereas we are almost in a commercial place in which it's farmer to farmer, neighbour to neighbour, if you will.
Let me go to Mr. Holmes. You laid out some pieces, saying that if LLP were to be, here is what you thought, from your organization's perspective, needed to be done. Let me say what I've heard more than once at this committee from groups.
I'm not trying to be flippant about this, but it reminds me of one of the stories we used to tell our kids about “not too soft and not too hard”. We've heard that while it can't be too high and shouldn't be too low in this present case, it's science-based.
It seems to me, if I recollect the science of things, that usually you get a number. You may get a variation, but science doesn't give you “not too low” and “not too high”. That's not actually science; that's the “I would like” something or other—“I don't want my porridge to be too hot and I don't want my porridge to be too cold, I want it to be just right”—which is really about how to market rather than how to do anything else.
I'm going to ask you this specific question. Regardless of what one thinks about GM, if one just accepts the science that it's actually safe—we'll take that as the piece to say both parties agree that it's safe—but if one party says “I don't want it”, how do you enter into a commercial agreement? I don't care whether they don't want it because of a trade barrier or have just decided that their population doesn't want it. What are we doing to ourselves with a group whom we may want to trade with—in this case the EU, which is 500 million people, though we have to see the agreement on the table—when they have decided they don't want it? They are not saying it's unsafe; they just say they don't want it.
It's like Heinz's and Campbell's soup. Which one do you want? “I don't want that one; I want this one.” Am I not the customer? Do I not have a right to say as a customer what I want? Isn't that a legitimate piece that's not being asked at the moment? At least in my view it is.
I'll let you comment on that big piece there.