Agriculture committee  I would, except the tree would then have to exist in plantation form. What we want to see is the protection of our forests from climate change, which is certainly where the pine beetle is finding its home. In that respect, when we refer to dangerous climate change, the pine beetle and how to deal with it are the types of impacts we would be looking at.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. Yes, I do see that there's a major problem in tracking health effects, because there's no mandatory labelling or post-market surveillance of foods. But even outside of that, we see already, as I mentioned, some contamination events. Crops that were not approved for human consumption, through cross-pollination and even just human error and mixing, have made their way into the food system.

Agriculture committee  Thank you. The Canadian Biotechnology Action Network is concerned with greenhouse gas emissions and the life cycle of various feedstocks, but that's not our expertise and so perhaps we would refer you to other witnesses. I think tomorrow there's another group that has an expertise in that area.

Agriculture committee  Yes, absolutely.

Agriculture committee  Generally we have the concerns that in setting up the mandate itself there's a support for an immature industry—or there are very many scenarios for what the industry will look like, and we don't yet know what the shape of the industry will be, even what feedstocks we will use and ultimately the impact on greenhouse gas emissions—and that the facts are contested at every point.

Agriculture committee  I do know, as you referred to, that in the Yukon there has been this petition presented to ask for a GE-free zone. We work with coalitions on the ground in British Columbia, quite a wide coalition, the Society for a G.E. Free B.C., which is working towards that goal of a GE-free province and certainly implementing, municipality by municipality, GE-free zones.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much. I work in Ottawa as the coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network. The network is a collaborative of 16 organizations across Canada, including international development organizations like InterPares and USC, farm associations and grassroots coalitions like the Society for a GE Free B.C., and the P.E.I.