Agriculture committee  Our communications, in fact, are all about information. We have never been opposed to GMOs. We look at what people want and we communicate that. That is our modest contribution.

Agriculture committee  I feel that we can do much the same as Mr. Yada has done. It is important to do things in an organized way and to do them well. We are hearing a lot about nanoproducts at the moment. Consumers are becoming more and more concerned because they do not know what they are. Once again

Agriculture committee  Yes, we have worked with organizations that deal with organic products, including oils. They are very concerned about cross-contamination. At the moment, the organic sector is not asking for testing. Products are not tested to see whether they contain genetically modified materi

Agriculture committee  Natural health products are something else entirely. The company just sends in its own documents and there is no checking. That is a whole different world. With GMOs, there is a whole process. Health Canada reviews the documents that the company sends, including the ones that de

Agriculture committee  As we mentioned in our presentation, it is a question of perception. The data we have come from polls in which Canadians were asked what concerned them. Some brought up allergies. These are perceptions, they are not scientifically proven. But they are widely held. As Mr. Ellis m

Agriculture committee  Science will never be able to do that.

Agriculture committee  First, as Mr. Ellis mentioned, it could publish some industry documents. We are guessing that the documents contain secret material. But the research we did in 2004 showed that they were going much too far. Access to any information about the industry is systematically denied. We

Agriculture committee  Yes, there is the voluntary code. People who want to sell a product without GMOs have to comply with the voluntary code. People who want to sell a product that contains GMOs and indicate that fact on the product use the warning “contains GMOs“. They must comply with the voluntary

Agriculture committee  Yes, in fact, it...

Agriculture committee  I'm sorry. Could you say that again?

Agriculture committee  For organics, there is a regulation. It applies to cross-border products. For example, the “Biologique Canada Organic“ label is mandatory for products that are going to be shipped from Saskatchewan to Alberta. But the situation is quite different for products that are going to s

Agriculture committee  We do not claim to be health experts. As the gentleman mentioned, perception is often very close to reality, even with science behind it. I am sure of that. The fact that Canadians are so afraid of GMOs perhaps shows that more research should be done and more information should

Agriculture committee  Perfectly. You mentioned New Zealand. There is Australia too. Both are under the same jurisdiction. New Zealand is one of the world's largest producers of GMOs. There is no inherent contradiction. It is just that labelling is mandatory there. We could easily make labelling manda

Agriculture committee  I have the voluntary code here. It contains a number of issues and problems that have been severely criticized. They are what made us decide to vote against the code in its present form. Of course, the tolerance level of 5% was a problem. In Europe, they have a tolerance of 0.9%.

Agriculture committee  Mr. Chair, ladies and gentlemen, given the level of consumer anxiety, Canada should have a great interest in formally adopting the precautionary principle. The widespread use of GMOs, including a significant portion entering the food chain, greatly increases the risk factor for t