Agriculture committee  Right.

Agriculture committee  There are two things on the process side. One is that most people here are talking about biotechnology as genetic engineering, and what I'm emphasizing to you is herbicide tolerance can be by a mutation. Much of our new crops can be by mutational breeding. Are we going to have a science-based process to determine safety, to determine environmental impacts?

Agriculture committee  I'd like to address a couple of issues. We talk about corporate control in agriculture. The last I saw it, one of the most important things in agriculture is financing. I have about five banks I can go to in Canada, plus FCC. If I talk about fertilizer--Potash, Agrium, Mosaic--there are about four fertilizer companies.

Agriculture committee  In terms of your question, yes, I am aware of it. I happen to serve on a board of directors called the BioAuto Council, and incorporating these types of fibres into any kind of transportation system is a huge asset, because they're lighter and stronger. We're testing products right now.

Agriculture committee  In my opinion, public funding of research is absolutely critical to what we call Canada, both in the development of products but also in assessment of safety, etc. There are two key things on that. I believe you go from the discovery research to capturing it. And when you capture that research, you'd better have your customers at the table, and you'd better have been working with industry right from the start.

Agriculture committee  Back in about 2000, exactly what you were talking about was done. There was a lot of controversy on GMOs. We were just learning about the technology, etc., so the Council for Biotechnology Information was created. It reported to Agriculture Canada, and we had the NGOs. I was not a member, but about 20 people were on that committee from diverse backgrounds, which I think is very healthy, and they worked on issues, exactly what you're talking about, and importantly, they got to understand each other.

Agriculture committee  I just hadn't met him before. We'll exchange cards and try to do that.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. I thank the committee for having me here to speak to you. I am the president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies. This is a consortium of our grower associations, our major farm associations of Ontario, universities, and private sector companies, from big multinationals to a lot of small Canadian, Ontario companies.

Agriculture committee  I can start. There are three main crops in Canada that are genetically modified. I'm not including, in any volumes, flax at this point. Those crops are corn, soybeans, and canola. Canola is somewhere above 80%. Soybeans are probably about 80%—and I would emphasize we have a large non-GMO market with all kinds of varieties.

Agriculture committee  I should emphasize that I mentioned celiacs just to show that we need to check the safety on the basis of novelty. There's no GM association with wheat right now. For example, we have done studies at the University of Guelph showing that if you give consumers choice, you can use Bt in corn through genetic engineering.

Agriculture committee  My group was created in 1997 by the farm organizations of Ontario. I answer to a board of ten directors, five of whom come from the farm organizations. People like the OFA, the corn producers, soybean producers, dairy farmers, and pork producers are all members. Five of my board members come from that group, two come from universities, and three come from industry.

Agriculture committee  Government always needs to maintain a public sector breeding program, and that includes the United Nations, which has done that. Suddenly we are starting to put a lot more resources into what I will call the science of agriculture and traditional breedings. But we have to have FAO and the United Nations with those centres.

Agriculture committee  The first thing I'd like to address is hunger. Hunger is multi-faceted, and part of it is that we will need to essentially double production in the next 50 years. I agree with that, and there are many tools.... But most hunger is an infrastructure issue, man's inhumanity to man.

Agriculture committee  We'll begin, and I understand I have between five and seven minutes. Because of that, I will just hit the highlights of my presentation. You have all been provided with a copy. I am president of Ontario Agri-Food Technologies. I answer to a board of directors, five of whom come from the farm associations, two from universities, and three from industry.

Agriculture committee  No. These are four-year programs, so now there is a system in place. But as Kim indicated, it's front-loaded, so suddenly there are five months, when we should have twelve months to get the very best projects out the door. It will go, but what I'm trying to ensure is that when this ends in 2013 we don't have another seven-month hiatus, because now, without grants, we are going to zero out.