Just how farmers have managed to collect so many dedicated and focused enemies should concern all of us. I think it's really pretty simple. It's all about the money. Much of what happens in this world usually is.
The domestic market for milk brings over 4.2 Billion dollars per year to Canadian dairy farmers and their families. Include processing and the amount jumps to10 Billion. This is a scrumptious target for some to focus on. Currently, this money goes into the hands of the 19,000 dairy farms and their families in Canada. By extension, it is then spent in local communities, by farm families, as they pay their farm bills, feed their families and do the kinds of things any other small business owner would do.
So just who would win? Well, it won’t be the dairy farmers and their families. De-regulating the industry would result in a collapse of the farm gate prices to these families.
Since the supply managed farmers are the ONLY farmers in Canada, making a decent living right now, they are frequently critical, to the survival of our rural communities.
Processors might be happy for a while, especially as they’ll likely demand and get the raw milk , much cheaper. Producers would have no choice.
Milk is considered a perishable product. It is in a liquid form and is refrigerated on the farm immediately, as cows are milked. Tanks only hold two to three days’ of milk and then the milk MUST be shipped or dumped. Bills must be paid. In this set of circumstances, farmers would not have many options but to take what they could get.
Consumers won’t win! Remember the Australian statistics? (See earlier post.) Retailers in most Canadian provinces have no controls on their pricing ability. Likely, the skimmed off profits would accrue first to the manufacturers and then to retailers.
I also think there is another element to who wants to dismantle supply management. Big multi-nationals see supply management and its Canadian rules, as a road block to their ideas of efficiency.
"Efficiency" is just a big business code word for profit.. Large companies like the **Yum! Brand Inc. (see http://www.yum.com/ ) certainly haven't been shy in the past, to leap into the supply management debate. You see, if they destroy the farmers' marketing system, (supply management) they destroy the farmers' power in the marketplace. Marketplace power in this century, for most other farmers is non-existent!!! Hence the agricultural crises that are only deepening.
Governments need to take note of this situation and consumers need to understand what is at stake for all of us.
** Yum! Brands Inc. includes KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W & Long John Silver. Before Yum! Brands Inc. existed many of these companies were under PepsiCo Inc. A stock split was the start of the new company in 1997. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PepsiCo)
The domestic market for milk brings over 4.2 Billion dollars per year to Canadian dairy farmers and their families. Include processing and the amount jumps to10 Billion. This is a scrumptious target for some to focus on. Currently, this money goes into the hands of the 19,000 dairy farms and their families in Canada. By extension, it is then spent in local communities, by farm families, as they pay their farm bills, feed their families and do the kinds of things any other small business owner would do.
So just who would win? Well, it won’t be the dairy farmers and their families. De-regulating the industry would result in a collapse of the farm gate prices to these families.
Since the supply managed farmers are the ONLY farmers in Canada, making a decent living right now, they are frequently critical, to the survival of our rural communities.
Processors might be happy for a while, especially as they’ll likely demand and get the raw milk , much cheaper. Producers would have no choice.
Milk is considered a perishable product. It is in a liquid form and is refrigerated on the farm immediately, as cows are milked. Tanks only hold two to three days’ of milk and then the milk MUST be shipped or dumped. Bills must be paid. In this set of circumstances, farmers would not have many options but to take what they could get.
Consumers won’t win! Remember the Australian statistics? (See earlier post.) Retailers in most Canadian provinces have no controls on their pricing ability. Likely, the skimmed off profits would accrue first to the manufacturers and then to retailers.
I also think there is another element to who wants to dismantle supply management. Big multi-nationals see supply management and its Canadian rules, as a road block to their ideas of efficiency.
"Efficiency" is just a big business code word for profit.. Large companies like the **Yum! Brand Inc. (see http://www.yum.com/ ) certainly haven't been shy in the past, to leap into the supply management debate. You see, if they destroy the farmers' marketing system, (supply management) they destroy the farmers' power in the marketplace. Marketplace power in this century, for most other farmers is non-existent!!! Hence the agricultural crises that are only deepening.
Governments need to take note of this situation and consumers need to understand what is at stake for all of us.
** Yum! Brands Inc. includes KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W & Long John Silver. Before Yum! Brands Inc. existed many of these companies were under PepsiCo Inc. A stock split was the start of the new company in 1997. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PepsiCo)
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