Local Milk ??

The Canadian consumer is upset but they are not screaming at their MP's or sending volumes of letters. This would be a helpful response for the farm industry in this county. It might wake legislators up. However, don't hold your breath.

Instead, busy consumers are doing other things to protect themselves from the onslaught of imported foods. They are freezing fresh vegetables they bought this season from markets and stores, that they know are local/regionally sourced. Fruit cellars and root cellars are topics of interest again. The Local food movement is growing by leaps and bounds.

So what about milk?

In discussion with just about anyone who supports local food movements it becomes very clear they have no idea how milk and milk products are supplied to plants in this province. They also don't seem to realize that the farm down the road is the supplier of their product and his milk could go to any of those plants.

According to Dairy Farmers of Ontario, this province has 76 milk processors. They list 10 of the largest and most well know on their links page. Why not on their "Comsumer page" too?

Somehow though, the dis-connect between even dairy farmers and consumers remains. The average guy is just not going to go looking for this info. They assume 'organic' is local, because for decades it was!

For the rest of the ag industry, less well funded and less focused on this issue, virtually NO information is getting to THEIR consumers about the issues in their industry that they need the buying public to understand.

Farmers are in despair and consumers are looking for local solutions. Meanwhile the largest, most efficient distributor of food products (the food retailers), is bringing food into their stores that I and many other consumers do not want!!!

It is in with-in the power of farmers to act. It will not be cheap. The buying public MUST find out what is going on. For many of them the major source of their information is the local media.

If newspapers and television will not provide the public with the information they need, then farmers and their organizations need to do much, much more to solve this problem.

A 'Grown in Canada' label is a good thing for us all. However, without pressure from the public, this is a slow road to salvation and I don't believe we have the luxury of time on our side.

Farmers and their organizations have all the information the public needs. They need to share it.

'Tis the Season.....

Sigh .... Christmas IS over and here we are barely into the new year and the attacks have already begun.

Dairy farmers have attracted some very powerful enemies, as I have mentioned before. Take the recent article in The Toronto Sun .

Land of milk and money

Canadians are paying more while drinking less of it, as other nations clamour for a sip -- so why aren't we exporting any?
By THANE BURNETT, NATIONAL BUREAU

The world is skimming the bottom of the milk bottle.
But, to the disappointment of some Canadians, we're not about to sell full glasses to others.
In countries such as Canada and Australia, the most natural drink next to water is fighting hard for dwindling fridge space.

Canadians are drinking less milk and eating far less butter than they did two decades ago, while in the land Down Under, the drop in dairy sales is almost three times as much.

Our market gets smaller, while beyond our borders a thirst grows, leading some to wonder why Canada is not following Australia's lead and changing its protected system to meet a global demand -- something which could cut prices here at home. read more....

This one has quite a twist in it as of course Canadian dairy farmers could send more milk out there into the world IF the World Trade Organization (WTO) and certain other countries would let them.

The article , of course fails to point this out, leaving ordinary Canadians think that Canadian dairy farmers don't get it. We don't have to look too far for the slanted source of this doggerel.

The writer quotes the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association(CRFA). Committed enemies of Canadian dairy farmers, they even have a plan they would like the government to follow.

Of course this would benefit them and recent events have shown, would not benefit dairy farmers at all. Continued reliance on the dollar and exports have nearly destroyed the beef and pork sectors.

Retail prices have nothing to do with farmers and everything to do with the strangle hold our food retailers have on the industry. I am disappointed that the writer pays lip service to dairy representatives and only puts forward those statistics in favour of his view.

I would not be surprised if those had been given to him by the CRFA, too!

The article is full of stats which have been successfully countered many times. Just good enough to leave people wondering. A rather unique twist though on the "shortage" side.

These people are just not going to let up. I checked their web page just to see what they are up to and dairy figures prominently on their website.

Under Menu Price Parity they have a number of beefs. Here is one:

Canadian consumers and restaurant owners pay among the world’s highest prices for supply-managed dairy and poultry products.

Canadian restaurant owners report paying up to 40% more than their U.S. counterparts do for supply managed dairy and poultry products.

Dairy products such as milk, cheese, butter, yogurt and ice cream are among the most widely used food items in a typical restaurant, but Canadian restaurateurs are forced to pay some of the world’s highest prices. They are prohibited from buying these products outside of Canada, with import tariffs of up to 300%. Similar restrictions are in place for chicken, turkey and eggs.

This antiquated supply management system doesn’t exist in the U.S., where restaurant operators are free to source their products from their supplier of choice and negotiate a price that’s fair to both parties. It’s important to note that Canadian restaurateurs rely on fresh, high quality Canadian food products, and they want to work with producers to expand their markets. But they also need those products to be competitively priced.

You can also check out their slanted complaints about milk prices here...

Hmmmm... they might even have this claptrap posted in their restaurants.

The dairy industry needs to pull up it's bootstraps and plan a serious long term counter attack! Time to call in the experts, boys.