Thank you to our witnesses for coming out.
I'm always interested in comments like what Mr. Rehn, for example, has made about the lack of benefit to the general public. Prior witnesses spoke about the lack of benefit to the producers. What we know now is that there are some 18 million farmers who actually use GMO in their business. What we've also found is that in the seed business, when you actually talk to the dealers out my way, those most technical seeds, which at the start tend to be the most expensive—it will cost you a hundred bucks or a little better an acre to plant, just for the seed—they're the first to go. I'm always wondering when I hear that what the thought is of the presenter who says there's no benefit to the farmer, when actually the farmer sees it as having a great economic benefit, a great environmental benefit.
Also, we have a report that came out by the American Council on Science and Health which was an analysis of 147 studies. The studies were not done just in Canada or the United States, but globally about the impact of GM soybean, maize, cotton crops, pesticide use, and farmer profits. What they found is crop yields increased 22%, farmer profit increased 68%, and they also found that GM technology has reduced chemical pesticide use by 37%.
We're always going to have these discussions about the use, but what I can tell you from on the ground.... I'm assuming that when we're talking about aquaculture and GMO salmon, we're not talking about safety and those issues. It's already been determined that those products are safe. What we are concerned about is how we market that, because we clearly know the benefits, not only in profit.... Some will say that all the big companies are interested in is profit. Actually, it's about the farmer. If we don't have an economically sound farming industry, aquaculture industry, then we don't have safe secure food that is economical to the consumer.
With that, I just want to ask Mr. Rehn one question. Are there any GMO products that you actually approve of?