Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Canadian Media strikes again

More articles are hitting the mainstream about supply management again. One in the Globe and Mail goes from the undemocratic treatment of the Wheat Board, to the Governments’ policies on these two systems and the unbalanced treatment they receive to “Supply Management is a rip off for consumers”…etc., etc.

Recently foodie articles are showing up ( In search of higher fat butter) with plenty of zingers in them to try to nail that coffin shut. Phrases like:

"Canada is a butter backwater, with less variety and quality and far higher prices than nearly any other food-loving nation."

"it’s a monopoly-produced dairy commodity"

"a government-mandated 80-per-cent fat content"

"What’s worse, Canada’s government levies a 289.5-per-cent tariff on all but a tiny quantity of foreign butter."

"The Dairy Commission doesn't bother itself making the price of butter competitive for everyday consumers,"

Instead of using the article to help make consumers more informed about the issues behind the rules, there is one negative term after another.

The lack of logic and real information in these articles is one thing. The force behind them all is quite another. In the middle is the Consumer and the farmers that serve them wondering just who and what is going on.

An old but still true adage is ‘follow the money’. Someone is spending a great deal of time (and likely money) drawing in the right wing media and fueling this whole thing. That’s actually pretty easy to do because our media seems to want to ignore what farmers themselves and their defenders are trying to say.

If a sampling of comments on this same article is anything to go by, consumers are being affected by this negative press.

Since no one can get any print or air time of consequence, other tactics are required.

I don’t believe the industry has put enough money behind this issue yet.