Agriculture committee  I think one of the things we need to recognize is that a lot of our Canadian scientists are studying outside of Canada too, and it's always been that way. I did my Ph.D. in Illinois and came back to Canada. Those are some of the things we need to keep in mind as well. We have a lot of students doing science study at universities.

Agriculture committee  Every project we have in the cluster that has some sort of production aspect to it has an animal welfare aspect to it. The vice-chair of our board calls animal welfare the new farm management, and it really is. It's how you raise those animals in such a way that you have reduced their stress to the minimum.

Agriculture committee  Certainly with poultry the regulatory framework isn't as extensive as with some of the crops. We have regulations around the types of antibiotics we can use, but that's becoming less of an issue, because we're moving more and more toward using fewer and not using them just for preventive purposes.

Agriculture committee  They're doing that in the cluster. We designed the cluster, and we like the clusters partially because of that.

Agriculture committee  Consolidating and coordinating that has been one of our major goals. The only complaint we have about the changes over the last couple of years is that it was so fast we didn't have time to react, and we committed our resources. The other thing about the industry is that the Chicken Farmers of Canada or Egg Farmers of Canada have multiple provincial organizations they have to answer to, so you have another pulling of things.

Agriculture committee  I think it's stated by the science and technology branch. Their emphasis is on the longer term, on what we might call basic or blue sky research. We need that. We have to have that. We like to take it once it gets beyond that point, although we do fund some basic research frequently in cooperation with the federal or provincial governments, but our owners are farmers and processors.

Agriculture committee  Yes, we have two projects within the cluster that look at climate change and emissions. Then we've also funded several others. Besides the cluster, we do an annual funding round, and we've done a couple on climate change too. It's becoming certainly more of an issue with some of the extreme weather patterns.

Agriculture committee  First of all, we really like the clusters. This has nothing to do with the clusters.

Agriculture committee  Yes, they are related, but the concern isn't with the cuts or the changes. It's with the way it was done. Our cluster proposal was already in before we knew anything about it. Then we had very little time to adjust. It was the adjustment time. It's not the aspect that you don't have the right to do this.

Agriculture committee  As the person who has to try to raise that money from our organizations, that's a wonderful question.

Agriculture committee  I've been in this job for just under three years now, and it took me quite a while to recognize the difference between the poultry industry and many other commodities, like dairy, for example. In the dairy industry, we're dealing with cows that produce milk. In the poultry industry we're dealing with multiple commodities.

Agriculture committee  At the Atlantic poultry research centre there certainly were some staff changes. The timing was very bad, because it was at the time when Dalhousie University and Nova Scotia Agricultural College were amalgamating. There were hiring freezes. There was an empty poultry position which I think they weren't allowed to fill, which they've advertised now.

Agriculture committee  A lot of our concentration on the research front is around vaccines. I think there's well over $1 million in our cluster for addressing that. Avian influenza is the one that terrifies the industry more than anything else, because the way you have to react to it is so extreme. We're doing a lot there.

Agriculture committee  Most of what we're involved in would be to do with genetics. We work closely with Aviagen and Hybrid Turkeys on projects, developing new genetics, and that goes worldwide and has a benefit to Canada.

Agriculture committee  One of the things I don't think we've done enough of is to look at the genetics. It's interesting. We've gone a long way. The genetics has been driven by the genetics companies, the companies that sell the genetic aspects, and their clients want more production, faster growth, that sort of thing.