One thing which has never made sense to me, and that is how we seem so interested in tossing aside the supply-managed sectors of farming.
In the past we have heard groups such as APAS (Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan) talk about what grain farmers really need is a pricing system reflective of the cost-of-production.
At their core that is one of the foundations of supply-management systems. Dairy and poultry producers receive a price which reflects at least a portion of the industry's general costs associated with producing a gallon of milk, or a dozen eggs, or a pound of turkey.
The idea of producers recouping their costs should be central to any farm program from a coffee producer in 小蓝视频 America benefiting from fair trade sales, to a dairy producer in Ontario, or a grain grower on the Canadian Prairies.
Interestingly consumers are only impacted marginally by having farmers recover their costs. A nickel on every loaf of bread would go a long way to helping farmers manage a consistent profit when you take that nickel on every loaf a bushel of wheat produces.
However there is a feeling out there that we would be better off dismantling supply management in an effort to secure market access for other farm commodities.
Now if we take a moment to consider how well the world marketplace does for farmers, we come to realize as many years as they pay prices generating farmer profits they have a seeming equal number of years where farmers need government support programs to keep them viable.
That's the other side of supply management. There is an element to control production levels to basically match domestic consumption.
Markets usually rise and fall based on supply and demand. High prices send farmers into a lemming-like rush to boost production to grab the high prices. As a result supply soon exceeds demand and like those same lemmings, prices crash off the cliff.
Sheldon Wilcox, manager of DLMS Alberta, a speaker at this year's Grain Millers Harvest Showdown, summed it up rather well.
Wilcox said he sees "two, three, maybe four years," of good prices ahead in the cattle sector, adding "if I had to guess I'd say four."
In fact Wilcox said strong prices will stay until the industry "screws up and over produces," adding, "And we will."
Supply management helps eliminate the ebb and flow of returns.
But apparently that's a bad thing. Many seem to want to toss of dairy and poultry sectors into the same market uncertainty as wheat and cattle.
You would think we'd be better off trying to get other farm commodities to the same place as dairy and poultry, that 小蓝视频 one where returns at least have some correlation to costs, and consumers pay a price in the store that has greater connection to farm costs as well.
Some argue supply management makes food costs higher than they should be. Perhaps higher than they could be, because dismantling the system will lead to lower farmer returns, but they are not higher than they should be because they reflect some real farm production costs.
Canada's effort to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership seems to be fueling the current debate, since supply-management appears a chip Canada would put in the table to get a deal.
The supply management chip may get us into a new trade deal, but the dairy and poultry sectors will be dragged down into the same pit where returns often fail to meet costs, and somehow that is hard to justify as progress.
