Canada’s supply management system has been in the spotlight over the past few weeks through local and national news reports. We can identify at least two recent undertakings that may be generating discussion.
We have heard rumblings recently from the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association, following its inaugural Summit on Parliament in October, about supply management.
It has also launched something called the Free Your Milk campaign. Many media outlets have covered this organization’s initiative, but they have left out the details on what supply management means for stakeholders throughout the value chain as products move from the farmgate to the grocery bag.
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Recent discussion on supply management may also stem from news surrounding the federal government and the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.
The Canadian government has formally indicated its desire to join the TPP negotiations. Prime minister Stephen Harper was also clear that Canada will not pre-negotiate its entry in the TPP, as it relates to agricultural supply management, intellectual property rights or other broad Canadian interests.
Also, the Canada-European Trade Agreement (CETA) is down to three outstanding issues, one being trade sensitive commodities such as dairy and poultry.
Does market access for non-agricultural goods and services warrant throwing our supply management farmers under a bus?
The answer is that Canada has concluded trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and bilateral agreements with Jordan, Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Chile, Israel and EFTA (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) while balancing Canadian interests, and it will do the same for CETA and the TPP.
The supply management system is a producer funded production system that matches supply with what consumers need and want.
This system assures Canadians have access to a stable supply of high quality, safe and nutritious dairy, poultry and egg products at reasonable prices, while the farmers who produce these products receive enough revenue from the marketplace to cover their cost of production.
While this provides stability to producer prices, it also prevents prices from falling and wiping out family farms in down cycles.
For example, Canadians have not had to deal with the wild fluctuations observed in world dairy markets in recent years.
Federal and provincial governments spend billions helping farmers survive market downturns through business risk management programming, but supply management farms do not require this assistance. As a result, the taxpayer wins as well.
Keystone Agricultural Producers believes all farmers want to find profitability from the marketplace and not through handouts from the taxpayer.
What the detractors fail to tell the public is that a typical menu price for a glass of milk is $2.25, of which the farmer’s share is 21 cents, the processor’s share is 11 cents and the restaurant’s share is a whopping $1.93 plus a 34 cent tip. So who is really getting milked here?
A medium three topping pizza sells for $15.29 in a restaurant and returns only 67 cents to farmers for the cheese. This is less than the tip a patron may pay the server.
I think farmers deserve to make a fair return in exchange for producing safe and abundant supplies of great tasting, nutritious food.
Let’s all stand up and support this made-in-Canada solution called supply management, and continue to enjoy the many culinary delights possible with the ingredients provided by family farmers in Manitoba and Canada.
Supply management has not stood in the way of Canada’s ability to successfully negotiate trade agreements in the past, and it is unlikely to do so in the future.
Chorney is president of Keystone Agricultural Producers, a Manitoba general farm policy organization.
