Thank you, gentlemen, for appearing before the committee.
We generally hope that we don't have any questions that lead to any discomfort, but I have to ask you this, Mr. Goetz. You say this, “If we sometimes bristle at suggestions that too little is being done, it's because we frequently feel that too little attention is paid to the specific efforts our industry have made, particularly in comparison to others.”
You were referring to a phrase you said earlier, “sustainable progress”.
On water, the use of water, we know or we're led to believe that there's an incredible problem in India because of irregular water extraction for the beverage industry. We know it's an issue in every country: sustainability with respect to the availability of fresh water. Wars were fought between tribes in the Old Testament over wells. We no doubt know that wars will be fought in the future over fresh water—trade wars and other more catastrophic wars.
One of the questions recommended to ask by the library on this was the fact that a number of Canadian universities moved to ban the sale of bottled water in vending machines. You know, I haven't drunk bottled water for years and years, but I'm conflicted because I also drink pop. I drink Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, to name a couple of brands, and there's still water in those drinks.
One of the reasons this ban on water is embraced in Guelph is, one, the use of plastic and, two, the price that's paid for the water that's being extracted outside of the city. I think I did a calculation once. It's .003¢ per litre, and water is a public resource; it's owned by all of us.
I'm just wondering if you've done any calculations on what it costs your industry in its use of water, whether in your opinion it's paying fairly back to the public for its use of water. I can't imagine there's any innovation that can be undertaken to reduce the consumption of water except maybe in the making of the packaging of the product, recycling that water. Can you talk to us more about water?
Second, you mentioned stevia, a wonderful discovery. Are there any other products on the horizon that your industry is looking at using for health purposes that you could use some specific help on?