Western Producer staff
Everywhere they look these days, Canadian dairy farmers seem to be seeing adversaries.
That certainly was the impression to be drawn listening to debates and hallway conversations during the recent annual Dairy Farmers of Canada convention.
Without doubt, the industry is reeling from a series of body blows and uncertainties. There are new trade rules, American threats and fears about consumer reaction to the likely introduction of BST into Canadian dairy herds.
There are questions about the commitment of governments to preserve what the farmers see as an efficient, farmer-friendly form of agriculture.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
There are suspicions about the real agenda of dairy processors who are pressuring farmers and their marketing boards to lower prices to below cost-of-production levels.
There is anger over the economists and business mouthpieces who continue to argue that supply management is an anachronism, a regulated drag on an increasingly open-market economy that must compete.
And then there is the threat posed by hostile public opinion.
Despite hundreds of thousands of dollars spent to advertise milk as nature’s most perfect food and dairy farmers as the backbone of an essential rural sector, industry leaders doubt the public really understands or supports them.
Part of it is the fact that with conversion of border quotas to tariffs under the recently-approved world trade deal, consumers now see that dairy farmers need protection levels of more than 300 percent for some of their products to keep cheap competition out.
No matter how unfair and simplistic dairy farmers say that perception is, they concede the high tariff numbers are a public relations disaster.
But for many industry leaders gathered at the convention the biggest public opinion problem seemed to be a media they consider hostile. Never mind that supply-management critics think farmers get a free ride from sympathetic reporters who like to portray them as victimized salt-of-the-earth types who are the last guardians of a simpler, wholesome way of life.
Many farm leaders see media as agents for the enemy, if not the enemy itself.
Newspaper editorial boards are waging “full-scale war” against marketing boards, Canadian Federation of Agriculture president Jack Wilkinson told delegates.
There were suggestions of another ad campaign, a more aggressive stance with media that publish negative stories, a greater effort to get to know journalists.
Through it all, though, not a single delegate challenged the questionable assumption that dairy and supply management have not had their share of fair media treatment.
Before they spend too much energy trying to massage the message, dairy leaders might first find out exactly what kind of coverage they have been receiving. They might be surprised, if they consider coverage beyond the high-profile dailies of metro Toronto.
Or perhaps it is that any coverage not overtly sympathetic is considered unfair?
Surely the $3 billion industry has more important things to worry about.
