Using Ontario statistics, the average yield was 149 bushels to the acre in the province of Ontario this past year. It was 151 bushels the year before. If you took a 150-bushel average in corn and you talked about a 10% stand loss, that would be the equivalent of 15 bushels to the acre. At current prices that comes out to almost a $100-per-acre loss to a farmer. For an average 500-acre corn farmer—there are smaller operations and many that are much larger—that would equate to a $50,000 loss for that farmer.
I'd also like to make a comment about Europe. I've read and actually been sent a lot of e-mails saying that if they banned it in Europe it must be the right thing to do. To make a direct comparison between Canadian farming and European farming is very difficult, because of the size of the fields they work in and the equipment they use. Another thing I'd like to point out is that they are one of the world's largest importers of food now. They also have the most subsidized farmers in the world. Basically, a farmer gets paid for doing what the EU or their national government determines would be appropriate.
That's not the case here. A $50,000 loss for a farmer here comes right off his bottom line. We want to do the right thing, but there aren't a lot of farmers who can afford to forego that income.