The most recent example of inaccurate information being presented to the public showed up in December in MacLeans(Dec. 16th issue). The article, entitled "A raw deal-WTO talks for a new global trade pact are on the brink of collapse, and Canada shares the blame" by ANDREA MANDEL-CAMPBELL,( http://www.macleans.ca/ ) was attempting to give an overview of the WTO talks as they unfolded in Hong Kong.
I saw biased comments about dairy farmers and very little real or accurate documentation about the issues.
To understand the failings of the article, one needs to understand a little about Canadian dairy farming and its uniquness in the world.
Canadian dairy farmers operate under a system of marketing called Supply Management. This system is generally misunderstood, poorly understood, not understood at ALL, vilified and attacked by many.
For one thing, big business hates us with a vengance. Essentially, supply management is a regulated form of collective farmer marketing.
Because we market collectivly, across Canada, individual farmers receive a fairer price for their products (milk, chicken, eggs). Of course, there is far more to supply management,than this bare outline, but receiving a fair price for their products is NOT happening in many other sectors of agriculture. This makes the group of farmers under supply management an apparent oddity in the Canadian farm marketing landscape.
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