Agriculture committee  It might take a ride in a pickup and a case of beer to really get down to the bottom of it, but I'm going to take a stab at it. The genome is done. Are we going to use genetic engineering on wheat globally, yes or no? If the answer is no, you won't see the private industry come in for the reasons we've discussed and do the proprietary traits for profit.

Agriculture committee  Well, the best example is canola, if I may go back again to the canola industry. There are three different types of herbicide tolerance, we'll call it, within the systems. The one, as Mr. Vandenberg said, is using a mutagenesis-type system, and the other two are using the traditional insertion of the gene into that plant.

Agriculture committee  As well, if you had an organic oil or a totally conventional oil from Europe in that same bottle and took it to the lab, you would not be able to tell which one is which. They are all canola oil.

Agriculture committee  Those are very good comments. Again, it's the tolerance issue. To give another analogy, I'm growing a Genuity Roundup Ready canola. Let's say I have a grower beside me who's using some new form of whatever, and that species ends up being a plant on my side of the fence that current herbicides can't control.

Agriculture committee  The petroleum-based fertilizer prices would dictate that. That's totally true. I've looked at a lot of these business opportunities that are putting the value of that stover or waste product at zero, and that is far from the truth. That is a very valuable product. For sure, Larry, there is....

Agriculture committee  I'm going to talk. I know just enough about it to be dangerous, so this needs to be clarified. Maybe Mr. Vandenberg could help me out. I'm led to believe that one of the key genetic markers of getting other traits into alfalfa is this. The way that it's been designed in the past is that the Roundup Ready event has a marker to bring forward certain other traits that come with it.

Agriculture committee  I believe so. This committee should clarify that.

Agriculture committee  In addition to the tolerance thing, which is by far the most critical thing, maybe we need a government strategy not to be deemed as being self-fulfilling by the private sector. Genetically engineered crops do not equal environmental disaster. I think that's the message. People talk about the Frankenfoods.

Agriculture committee  Let's use the U.S. system and soy beans. A lot of the plastics that are derived are soy-based. The same soy goes into soy milk, and the oil goes into biodiesel and all sorts of things. I would say that unless there are proper tolerances for non-food uses that would not have the trait that would be proven safe for human consumption, first we would have to have a tolerance in place.

Agriculture committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, committee, for the opportunity to present. My name is Brad Hanmer. I'm president and CEO of Hanmer Ag Ventures. We operate a 24,000-acre grain, oilseed, and pulse farm two hours southeast of Saskatoon. I'm a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan's agricultural economics department, and since then, one acre at a time, I've been taking a PhD in agricultural business.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, for that. Yes, in fact, that is the case. Unfortunately, a lot of guys from my demographic get into one of those crops, a crop that a lot of people in eastern Canada think we grow, and that's wheat and barley. Unfortunately, it's exactly the opposite: we can't make a go of it, guys.

Agriculture committee  If I may, that's a great question. I would say from my experience, from my network of friends, it's actually a question you ask the generation ahead of me. If that generation isn't willing to allow it to happen, it isn't going to happen. That partnering becomes.... When I was 22 years old, I told him I wanted to farm, and it was his choice that allowed me to do it.

Agriculture committee  That's a very good question. I think it's a lot of personal choice. I don't know how to answer that. That's how family farms will survive. It's the parents and the generation ahead allowing that to happen.

Agriculture committee  I'll go, Colin. I would say the biggest thing now...I'll even take it one step further to my grandfather's time, when whoever worked the hardest got ahead in life. The next one was whoever could find efficiencies would get ahead. In my generation now it's who's willing to adapt to technology, who's willing to look beyond just the meat and potatoes of a grease gun and a wrench that is in your back pocket.

Agriculture committee  Thank you very much for the question. The one thing that I think is dangerous, as legislators, is to get confused on what the definition of a family farm is. Family farms can also be large. The average farm size in my neck of the woods is probably around 3,000 to 4,000 acres. There isn't a farm in our area that is more family than mine, and we're a 24,000-acre farm.