Milk & Eggs

Supply Management and Marketing Boards (again)

   Prices are rising and early next year the prices of milk and eggs will be around 10% higher. I learned this from an article in the G&M (Nov. 4), with this rather good headline: The Canadian Dairy Commission Has Picked a Terrible Time to Milk Consumers." It is a good article and among other sentences in it are these:

The CDC insists the increases are necessary to “partially offset increased production costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.” But the only supporting evidence it offers is an unaudited cost-of-production report that includes no raw data and is based on a random survey of 224 farms.

   The insensitivity of announcing so steep and quick an increase during the pandemic is stunning, but not surprising. Indifference to the real world is baked into Canadian supply management, a thoroughly opaque system of production quotas, price fixing and protectionist import tariffs that has produced some of the highest retail costs for dairy products in the world....It is a system that allows dairy farmers – along with chicken, egg and turkey producers, who also benefit from supply management – to thrive in a bubble, safe from the global economic palpitations that are being felt by everyone else.

   Although the system may be 'opaque', one should not automatically oppose it since, Its plusses are that it guarantees a steady supply of safe, good-quality milk that comes from humanely treated cows, prevents overproduction that can lead to spoilage and eliminates price volatility. It is also Canadian milk, produced locally and not imported from across the border.

  The article also includes a link to a new study which is very useful if you are interested in supply management or the prices of milk and eggs.  That study is the reason behind this post.  A while ago (June, 2018), I provided you with a very thorough bibliography about supply management that goes back for most of this century (it is the post with the picture of Eugene Whelan having a jug of milk poured on his head by dairy farmers back in the 1970s.) If you combine that bibliography with the one in the new study, and actually read the study, you will be an expert on the subject of marketing boards and be either pleased or displeased about the prices of milk and eggs. 

Sources:

   Apart from the Globe article see: "Farmers Defend Impending Price Hike on Dairy Products," Scott Miller, CTV News, Nov. 4, 2021

   The new study: "Supply Management 2.0: A Policy Assessment and a Possible Roadmap for the Canadian Diary Sector," Sylvain Charlebois, et al. Foods, 2021, (10), 5, 964, April 2021. The entire article is available from the link provided above. Here is the abstract:

Many believe the current Canadian Dairy supply management system is outdated. Examining a recent consumer survey suggests consumers, especially among the younger generations, have mixed feelings about how the Canadian dairy industry is good for the environment or whether animals in the sector are humanely treated. The general Canadian public strongly supports financial stability for farmers, though is not fully educated about how supply management works. Issues regarding the centralization and amalgamation of the industry, making many regions underserved; recent milk dumping due to a strong shift in demand caused by COVID-19; and the popularity of dairy alternatives, show that the dairy sector in Canada is ill-prepared for major change. Dairy farmers are receiving compensation for trade deals recently ratified by the federal government, creating a precedent that will lead to an overcapitalized industry. The aim of this paper is to review the industry’s current state and suggest a roadmap for a more prosperous future.

To see the picture of Eugene Whelan - Supply Management - Marketing Boards. 

The Bonus: 

  If you happen to be an oologist and are interested only in eggs, then see: Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs: Bird Conservation Comes Out of Its Shell, which is found at the bottom of this post:   Bird Art.