Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank the witnesses for being here.
The topic is very broad. If we aren't scientists or if we're not very familiar with the research in the field, it's easy to be confused. However, as consumers and representatives of Canadian consumers, we're listening to what's being said about the war on antimicrobials. We're talking about 10 million deaths by 2050. This is more than the number of deaths resulting from cancer, a disease we're currently fighting.
In the case of HIV/AIDS, for example, the good news is that we've finally found drugs and some form of treatment. Here, it seems that we're talking about a wheel that will never stop turning. How do we stop it or slow it down while maintaining quality of life? We're looking for quality of life when we use antimicrobials or other drugs.
I want you, the experts, to tell us what we don't know. For example, what would a journalist in the field reveal about drugs that aren't prescribed, but that can be obtained through the Internet; about farmers who use certain substances to produce faster growth; or about citizens who say they don't use pesticides, but whose grass is as green as a golf course?
Can you talk about things happening in the field that we aren't aware of?