Thank you very much.
I'll address the questions regarding the various genetically modified products.
As the committee knows, no genetically modified products can be placed on the market until a series of food safety assessments are conducted on the part of Health Canada, an assessment of the implications for the environment is done by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and an assessment related to the safety of the products for animal feed is also conducted by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. In addition to those assessments, for certain products there are, of course, a variety of registration requirements.
Take GM alfalfa as an example. There is no permitted GM alfalfa in Canada. There has been no application for the registration of a variety of GM alfalfa in Canada. At this time, GM alfalfa is not present in production in Canada, and therefore concerns related to GM alfalfa at this point are moot.
In terms of the issue of a GM apple, of course the same oversight responsibilities would apply, as I have mentioned. Of course, in addition to all of these, the commercial uptake of any product, even after it is permitted, then depends on the choice of the industry as to whether or not those products would actually enter the marketplace. There are a number of checks that provide assurance that products derived through genetic modification will be safe for consumption and that those products, if introduced into the Canadian environment, will not present problems in the Canadian environment once introduced.