Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely. If I can finish, the photo that I showed was just a system that exists on one level. There are also aviary barns that have several levels. Those two systems are both the typical cage-free production systems, and yes, what we advocate for is cage-free systems in an indoor barn environment.

Agriculture committee  I think that would be a great study for the commission to do.

Agriculture committee  There is a study that I know is being peer reviewed at the moment, coming out of the Nova Scotia Agricultural College, which is looking at the cost of transition to cage-free housing as well as the overall differences in cost in production between systems.

Agriculture committee  No, no, I often talk to producers and producers' associations. At the moment, HSI Canada, for example, is part of the Quebec government's strategy for animal health and welfare, which involves sitting on a board with the producers' association and individual producers. From my personal experience, they are very much aware of this trend.

Agriculture committee  Some of those examples were mandatory. If you look at parts of Australia and also the European Union, you see mandatory labelling of cage eggs. That's had a really significant impact on sales of cage-free eggs. I think that just makes it very clear that consumers, once they have that extra information on the products they're buying, will go for a more humane method of production.

Agriculture committee  These calls surely show that Canadians care about the treatment of animals. Our work to protect farm animals primarily focuses on the use of intensive confinement systems such as battery cages for laying hens and gestation stalls for breeding sows. As you'll see in the presentation, Canadians truly care about the treatment of farm animals in these systems.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Humane Society International/Canada is very pleased to be presenting here today as part of Growing Forward 2. This presentation will highlight the incredible changes that have taken place in recent years thanks to growing consumer demands for improvements in animal welfare in agriculture.

Agriculture committee  I'm aware of that. This is relevant to that. Thank you.