Agriculture committee  I'll take a try at that. Evolution is occurring all the time, so “genetically modified” is actually a wrong term. If you look at dogs that started off as wolves, and now we can go from a Chihuahua to a Great Dane—cattle is another one—we have been separating breeds for eons. In so doing, we are genetically modifying by our selection.

Agriculture committee  I would just like to comment on the study. That's why I use “weight of scientific evidence”. People looked at that. Scientists looked at that. They went back to see if they could repeat it. They found issues with the study, and it was looked at over and over again. So you end up with one saying this and 40 saying that.

Agriculture committee  First of all, I would emphasize that omega-3 in milk, for example, is something that had to go through the novel foods act, because we didn't normally have omega-3--

Agriculture committee  You don't drink Dairy Oh! in Ontario? I drink it. But it's added.

Agriculture committee  It's not in the cow. My point is that it had to go through the same regulatory process of novel foods. I know Rickey has been working with the company a lot. At that point--there is cloning and all those kinds of things--you would start to breed more and more of those animals, again, if there was a market.

Agriculture committee  The first question was on novelty. Again, I have to emphasize flexibility, because you could have something that's registered that has very small use in a very minor area. You can't suddenly say, even though it may be a long time, and something is very widespread.... You don't have to look just at Canada.

Agriculture committee  To my knowledge, there would be no health concern. That's why we have a regulatory system. It goes through all kinds of studies. In my opinion, it would not be a health concern. Again, I have to emphasize that I'm very much for supporting organic food, but as for proving that it has better health benefits for a person, I can't find documented evidence.

Agriculture committee  You never get a consensus with lawyers.

Agriculture committee  I'm pleased to say I'm an entomologist by scientific training, and I've worked with my bee people at the University of Guelph for a long time. The number one reason is actually biological organisms. There's a number of mites, actually tracheal mites, that get into the respiratory systems, that have been introduced.

Agriculture committee  I would indicate that allergenicity is one area that's always put in a toxicological evaluation. Now, that does not mean something can't.... But people should be aware that one of the key theories right now as to why we're seeing more allergenicity is that we're living in such a clean society.

Agriculture committee  Absolutely.

Agriculture committee  And that's the general overall: the use of biological organisms for the betterment of humankind. Within that, it's how we have a good environment and all those other things. There are many, many tools, as I'm trying to explain, that can be used to do that.

Agriculture committee  I would just like to comment on this. I think Dr. Yada put this point forward. In science and technology, everybody likes what I would call the sexy and exciting things, the IT and all of those things, yet food is so fundamental to us as Canadians. The other key thing that I have to emphasize is that it's probably our number one health risk right now, because of over-consumption in terms of calories.

Agriculture committee  Yes.

Agriculture committee  You have to look at each individual crop. Something like miscanthus right now is an “imported” crop. I should emphasize for everyone in this room that we really have only four crops that are actually native to Canada. Wheat, corn, soybeans—all those are non-native. Miscanthus is a crop that came out of Japan.