Last week in a grocery store I held up a package containing one T-bone steak to see how much the $24 steak cost per kg when a guy comes over and says to me, “Canada should do away with the quota system and we’d have beef we can afford.”
I wasn’t a bit surprised by the man’s lack of knowledge of Canada’s supply managed farm commodities. An Angus Reid Institute survey of Canadians last year revealed some interesting facts. The survey questionnaire asked respondents about the basics of how supply management works and what products it controls.
The population has one thing in common. Most are largely unaware of the detailed components of supply management. Just 4 percent said they know “a lot” about the policy, while 58 percent said they know nothing about it at all. Most were unable to accurately choose which products are regulated under the system — and even among those who said they know a lot about it, one-in-three said beef and pork are included. Beef and pork are not included.
I took this great opportunity to quiz the man about meat and told him I’m always interested in what consumers think as I farm and we should listen to consumers. I had his ear and told him some meat cuts are very expensive in the stores and it’s not because of quotas or supply management. I asked him if he thought pork was supply managed in Canada and if it could only be produced by those holding a production quota.
“No, pork is okay, it’s never too, too pricey,” he said.
What about chicken, is it supply managed? I asked. No, he said, chicken is always a good buy. What about turkeys? I asked. He thought they too were not supply managed.
He was so wrong. Beef is not supply managed but chicken and turkeys are.
I have written many columns over the past 31 years on Canada’s supply management system. Here again are some facts:
* Canada’s supply management system encompasses five types of products: dairy, chicken, turkey, table eggs, and broiler hatching eggs.
* In Canada, the dairy supply management system is administered by the federal government through the Ottawa-based Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) a Crown corporation. The Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada federal department is responsible for both the Canadian Dairy Commission and its analogue for eggs, chicken and turkey products, the Farm Products Council of Canada.
According to the 2016 Canadian Census of Agriculture, there are 193,492 farms in Canada; about 12 per cent of Canadian farms are under supply management.
Under supply management, a national marketing agency determines production amounts for each commodity and then sets production quotas for each province.
In order to sell their products, a farmer must hold a quota — basically a license to produce up to a set amount. The quota prevents market gluts that would cause prices to dip and disrupt farm incomes.
The quotas initially were given away for free but in recent years became quite valuable; Canada’s total quota is now valued at over $32 billion.
The United States, in contrast, has largely maintained support for the farming sector through subsidies. Americans foot the bill for farm supports indirectly, through the taxes they pay, while Canadians pay for those supports directly, at the grocery store through prices for supply-managed products.
And beef and pork are not supply managed.
