The greatest threat to Canada’s dairy supply management system is “greedy” producers who do not accept the production restrictions that go along with higher guaranteed domestic prices, says the retiring president of the national dairy farmer lobby.
John Core from Wyoming, Ont., said the majority of Canadian milk producers accept the balance between guaranteed higher prices and production limits.
But he warned that, like prairie grain farmers convinced they can have the benefits of the Canadian Wheat Board while having the option of marketing on their own, there are some dairy producers who wish for the best of both worlds.
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“The greatest challenge in the future will come from within,” Core said during his farewell speech to the Dairy Farmers of Canada policy convention.
“The risk is that some producers will become greedy and think they could make more money if they could only market domestically themselves.”
Core warned that if the system allowed dissidents to get their way, domestic and foreign critics of supply management would jump on it as a sign that the system disciplines are gone and that import controls or price setting no longer are justified.
“If allowed to fester, such ambitions would lead to eventual self-destruction of our system,” he told delegates at the meeting held Jan. 14-18.
“The industry must always be on its guard.”
In a later interview, he said those who wish to end the domestic marketing monopoly are a small minority but it is growing.
“We’ve gone through a period of a lot of change in the past 10 years,” he said. “When you go through a lot of change, more of that will rise to the surface.”
He said the age of the supply management system also is a factor.
“We have a whole bunch of people now in the dairy industry who weren’t involved prior to 1970 when we had all that turmoil,” he said.
“They are used to a stable system so maybe they have forgotten the balance we need to maintain that stability.”
