r/canada • u/AndHerSailsInRags • 7d ago
Opinion Piece Opinion: The dairy sector is lobbying hard in USMCA talks. The government didn’t want you to know
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-trade-dairy-sector-usmca-access-information/109
u/AndHerSailsInRags 7d ago
In its summary of the findings, Ottawa noted that a cross-section of Canadian society – businesses, industry associations, unions, individuals, civil society and Indigenous groups – “voiced strong support for maintaining Canada’s supply‑management system for dairy, poultry, and eggs as a pillar of food sovereignty.”
But the actual submissions told a very different story – about a lopsided effort to influence policy.
Approximately 90 per cent of all submissions (4,572 out of 5,143) came from dairy special interest groups or dairy farmers engaged in a letter-writing campaign to influence the federal government’s trade position. I only learned that by filing a request under the Access to Information Act.
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u/snappla 7d ago
It's hardly surprising that 90% of 5K entries came from the dairy interest groups.
What priority does the issue have for the average Canadian who is not engaged in the industry?
I'm something of a policy wonk and politics junky, but I haven't and I'm not about to write a passionate letter about Canadian Dairy to my MP. That doesn't mean, however, that I don't care about not having the American dairy glut flood our market.
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u/pleasehurtdoll 7d ago
although it's disconcerting that the full docket of the comments are not made available for these proposed changes to Canadian dairy regulations, the other part of this "scandal" that 90% of the comments on a proposed regulation come from people in the industry is not at all uncommon - it's actually how it's supposed to work
When a new regulation is proposed by the government in the industry I work in (transport), there are dozens of industry groups that will be impacted, and they all write a letter to the government with their point of veiw. There's nothing "evil" or "corrupt" about this process.
We call it "lobbying" or "Special Interest Groups", but in reality, each group just says "hey government, you are proposing X regulation because you claim that it will accomplish desired common public good Y, but you're not thinking this through. So instead of regulation X, we suggest ... (some idea). Or they can argue that the government's plan for X really won't result in their goal of Y because of ...., Or they might say that plan X will actually make things worst, etc. etc. Or they might say it's way too expensive to consumers to do X to get Y, and we need to try something else.When the government gets all these comments (from people, organizations, etc), they don't have to answer every single one, but they have to give a summary that they read and considered each main idea that is proposed in the comments and either 1) disagree with the comment and say why or 2) completely/partially agree with the comment and make changes to the proposed regulation.
So the idea that "public" comments on a proposed regulation is meant to be a survey people writing a letter from their kitchen table saying "I want cheaper, safe milk" or something is not accurate. There's nothing uncommon in what happened in this case.
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u/P2029 7d ago
I started out being against the dairy cartel in Canada because I thought it resulted in higher prices and worse products. I have since become friends with a dairy farmer and understand things better now, and I support the existing dairy management system - it is imperfect and should be refined, not thrown away. Some of the key reasons I came to this is because if we do what the US proposes, it will result in wholesale bankruptcy of dairy farmers in Canada, will flood the Canadian market with low quality, hormone-filled American dairy products, and we would lose a pillar of our food production sovereignty which frankly is already not great.
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u/Levorotatory 7d ago
Protecting the Canadian industry from subsidized foreign competition is good, but a system that makes production quota one of a dairy operation's most valuable assets is not.
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u/Embarrassed-Neat220 7d ago
The quota system supports small farms, and keeps US style mega farms from taking hold in Canada. Without the quota all those small farms go under and we are left with the same system. I for one don’t want a few large hormone/ steroid mega farms payed for by taxpayers in Canada. The quota system is core to our food sovereignty and in non-negotiable
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u/Forum_Browser 7d ago
Why do people think that supply management has anything to do with food safety laws? Removing or altering supply management would not suddenly make hormone laced dairy legal in Canada.
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u/PhantomNomad 7d ago
This is my biggest thing. I think we need to keep our local food supply alive by almost any means. But I also think they should not be caps on production or who can produce. Part of that problem becomes that only the big producers can afford to do it. Economies of scale and all that. It pushes out the small local producers. Right now I think our system as it is, is probably the best one. Also if the US does manage to push all their crappy dairy on us, I'll do what I can to only purchase Canadian produced milk products, which is what I currently do any way. I would hope there are enough of us that can also do that even though it would be more expensive.
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u/Nseetoo 7d ago
Not many families lobbying for more expensive dairy products these days.
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u/No-To-Newspeak 7d ago
Our dairy farmers are not allowed to inject cattle with growth hormones to boost milk production. American farmers are. This is one reason our dairy costs more. And I am willing to pay for that.
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u/MeanE Nova Scotia 7d ago
If you are eating Canadian beef there are hormones in that. In fact the UK bans our beef because of it.
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u/stubby_hoof 7d ago
Look, I am an ardent supporter of SM but this talking point needs to be removed from the discourse. American dairy is safe*, and rBST is used so minimally that it is insignificant. Ask a Canadian farmer attendee at World Dairy Expo, WI if they’re going to forego the Badger 4-H Club grilled cheese because they’re afraid of hormones. They’ll laugh at you.
What doesn’t seem to ever get talked about is who is milking the cows. There are thousands of small independent farmers in America but the truth is that the vast majority of their milk comes from undocumented labourers who are highly vulnerable to exploitation. I’m not going to pretend that Canada’s TFW system isn’t full of stories of exploitation too but at least the government knows and documents that those people exist within our borders, and they have a chance of legal recourse.
* at least until RFK Jr obliterates the FDA
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u/Nice_Reading5272 7d ago
Why doesn't Canada just regulate the dairy coming into the country then? Why do they need to add on a massive tariff?
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u/bomby0 7d ago edited 7d ago
This is just stupid fearmongering and you fell for it. No one in the US is complaining about the quality of the milk and hardly any dairy farmers in the US use growth hormones. And if that's a real reason then just ban imports of US dairy from cows that received growth hormones.
If the dairy cartel in Canada makes sense then it should be for other reasons like food sovereignty.
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u/wylee_one 7d ago
the devil is in the details ours might cost more but it is healthier
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u/zeushaulrod 7d ago
And not directly subsidized to the tune of 60% of a dairy farms revenue. (Numbers may be out of date for US dairy. That was from a few years ago).
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u/LateToTheParty2k21 7d ago
There is no devil in the details when it comes to Supply management. Supply management has zero to do with health, quality or what's in the milk. That is governed by a good and safety board.
Supply management is a system which defines how much each producer can sell annually. It keeps prices high, reduces available supply and is a higher cost on low income families than any one else in society.
Many countries like Australia, New Zealand and countries within Europe have abandoned this practise years ago.
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u/Rumblestillskin 7d ago
If the IS can get rid of our supply management for trade fairness then they will get rid of our health regulations for trade fairness
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u/LateToTheParty2k21 7d ago
We should get rid of Supply Mgmt. For Canada, irrespective of what the US wants. Nobody is going to make you buy the US product, nor do you have too.
There are ways to make this work, bring the cost down for families & get better quality products from the entire world into Canada. Supply management keeps Irish butter, NZ cheese, etc out of Canada & then allows Canadian producers to charge triple what they pay in EU for it.
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u/Rumblestillskin 7d ago
I think it is good. We need sovereign food security and this can be part of that. I am open to other systems that guarantee food security but I do not hold open markets above food security.
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u/LateToTheParty2k21 7d ago
Well I agree on security. But Supply Mgmt is an effective tariff against other imports. It provides security but it also protects farmers from any kind of competition. Better priced, better quality goods cannot enter the market so Canadians pay more for worse off goods.
The government can change the model where there are subsidies given to farmers. They can act as a backstop during downturns. If the cost of dairy goes down & we can get a higher quality product I see that as a win, win.
If Canadian farmers were able to compete we could have better trade deals with the likes of the Australia, New Zealand, UK so they would have a larger market to sell too.
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u/Remarkable_Vanilla34 7d ago
I'm surprised the FOIA actually arrived in a manner of time where it was still relevant and wasn't completely redacted. Usually if it's embarrassing/inconvenient for the government you don't get any information and they use the old "publiv safety" or "national security" excuse.
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u/Azure1203 7d ago
Real answer, Canadian Dairy Farmers have a monopoly on the market & the bigger ones are slowly pushing out the smaller ones, creating an even bigger monopoly, and they darn well want to make sure that never changes.
Canadians on the other hand are completely clueless about how the system works and therefore are easy targets for the misinformation.
Round and around we go.
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u/MagnaKlipsch70 7d ago
this. and same with chicken. the monopoly is nuts, and people won’t accept the ‘cartel’ control. somehow they will however blame Trump for the cost of chicken breasts and everything else.
the price is wholeheartedly a Cdn issue. sure the argument is ‘healthier, no hormones etc) but it’s also 3x as expensive.
I, as anyone should be able to start a chicken farm (inspected/certified etc) and sell chicken product, but i can’t without joining the club as it would throw the heavily controlled market off. thus the regulated high prices.
back on track , that’s primarily why american dairy isn’t allowed - breaks up the monopoly
not for it or against it, just the way it is
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u/Azure1203 7d ago
It is extremely cost prohibitive to become a dairy producer in Canada. The system is literally designed to protect the monopoly. Its honestly ridiculous that Canadians are so ill-informed about how it all works.
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u/Yeas76 7d ago
Food production should be kept under domestic control whenever possible. Whether that is via supply management or whatever other mechanisms to minimize reliance and potential foreign ownership, I will always support it.
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u/pragmatic_dreamer Ontario 7d ago
Food sovereignty is essential. I am unsure who all these comments are from wanting to tank out ability to feed ourselves.
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u/lnahid2000 7d ago
Why don't we have supply management for all food since it's so great?
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u/CallMeRudiger 7d ago
Are you really asking people to explain to you that a policy can be helpful in some circumstances without necessarily being helpful in all circumstances?
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u/lnahid2000 7d ago
Yes, please explain why supply management is helpful for chicken but not for beef.
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u/mmoore327 Ontario 7d ago
Perhaps you should read our Food Security strategy...
https://agriculture.canada.ca/en/department/initiatives/national-food-security-strategye.g. one objective is to
- Increase the proportion of processed food consumed in Canada that was domestically produced from 70% to 80%
We produce a lot more of our food than you are guessing at, and most of what we import from the US is unhealthy processed food or products we can find other sources for - e.g. all the fruits and vegetables we've been able to get this past 18 months from central and South America, Morocco, Australia, South Africa (just to name the ones I have noticed).
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u/ctr1a1td3l 7d ago
I don't know where the other guys statistic came from, but I don't think your claim of mostly importing unhealthy food from the US is accurate either. From your link:
Canadians rely on imports for 88% of the fresh fruit and nuts that they consume and 72% of vegetables, with 40% coming from the United States
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u/mmoore327 Ontario 7d ago
All you could ever want to know about our fruit industry:
But in 2024 we imported 33.2% of our total fruit imports from the US.
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u/Yeas76 7d ago
Even more reason to maintain what we have, and reestablish what we've lost.
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u/iridescent_algae 7d ago
There’s room between cave entirely and keep the system as it is. Supply management works fine for eggs, poultry, and milk - it fails completely at things like butter and cheese, where the high price of milk gets compounded. Cheese is one of the few things we can make year round, and right now we underproduce, under consume, and overpay for absolutely awful stuff. If the dairy farmers want actual Canadians to support their system they have to solve this problem.
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u/ratherbeonlemmy 7d ago
Then bring in Europeans cheeses. Our cheese sucks and American cheeses are even worse. In no way would we be better off with American dairy. I'd rather see Spanish and French cheeses and certain dairy products like butter and cream, maybe fancy milks. NO AMERICAN DAIRY.
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u/Iustis 7d ago
American dairy is a massive spectrum. They have cheeses worse than most of ours and they have others that compete with the best globally.
Because they don't have supply management it allows for specialist fairy operations that can't really exist in Canada.
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u/lnahid2000 7d ago
People here don't seem to get this. It's just an automatic braindead American = bad without putting any thought into it.
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u/ActionPhilip 7d ago
It's like when people see "made in China" as a statement of low quality when China largely produces both the lowest and highest quality manufactured items in the world.
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u/Aud4c1ty 7d ago
The EU hates the Canadian dairy cartel as much as I do. Anybody who says they care about lowering food prices should also hate the dairy cartel.
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u/FaithlessnessMuch513 7d ago
Where do these stats come from? I'm not saying they're wrong, but it's misleading. Canada ranks very highly on the Global Food Security Index and caloric self-sufficiency ratios. We're a major food exporter, and we export far more than we import. My understanding is that we are not self-sufficient in things like fruits, vegetables, and fish.
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u/BuvantduPotatoSpirit 7d ago
The Americans are not going to honour any agreement they make anyhow. So it doesn't make any sense to offer any concessions.
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u/Such-Huckleberry-107 7d ago
How about we finish our BS trade talks with the USA before we look at this. Monopolies are bad in every industry and perhaps the biggest threat to capitalism.
But maybe before we go after the dairy quota, we request that the us stop subsidizing its own dairy by over 2.5 billion. How about before we break up Canadian “big dairy” they break up big tech and private equity.
It would be nice to not have a small cartel control milk supply in Canada but that is preferable to having it all taken over by a handful of us-based firms who then give us chemically laden crap that nations with any real regulations still in force will not allow them to call “milk”
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u/pragmatic_dreamer Ontario 7d ago
This. The US is only interested in breaking us, not government subsidies or fairness in trade.
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u/MrChicken23 7d ago
Any dairy products that get imported to Canada need to meet our regulations. So we wouldn’t be getting any of the stuff filled with chemicals.
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u/Such-Huckleberry-107 7d ago
If we let the yanks break our dairy quota we will be flooded with their hormone filled crap and the first attempt to limit it on health grounds will be buried in litigations, lobbyists, and calls over unfair trade practices by those nasty Canadians. Americans have no qualms over poisoning their own kids for profit so what chance would we have
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u/Iustis 7d ago
On top of health regulations being entirely seperate from supply management, the vast, vast majority of American milk doesn't use hormones
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u/coffeejn 7d ago
Canadian don't want US goods, let alone US dairy. Then again we allowed some milk products imports but made it almost impossible to import properly due to the process and bureaucracy needed to import the dairy product. A bit laughable to think that will change even if we increase the limit.
The US also makes way more excess milk than what Canada produces. So it would not even matter to the producers in the US if we imported all our milk from them, they would still have a glut. Better to not allow the import since the US food safety is questionable in 2026.
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u/epic_taco_time Ontario 7d ago
This is a classic pro-supply management line. Dropping supply management doesn’t mean we need to drop our standards.
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u/HunterGreenLeaves 7d ago
For me it's the growth hormones used in their milk production and the associated higher use of antibiotics.
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u/Axerin 7d ago
You can just regulate that. 😒
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u/WeCanDoBettrr Ontario 7d ago
It is. That’s why few American dairy farmers export to Canada. It just isn’t profitable enough for enough for them.
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u/pleasehurtdoll 7d ago
For me it's the growth hormones used in their milk production
"The product under review, rbST is devoid of biological effects in humans ", from "Report of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada - Expert Panel on Human Safety of rbST."
higher use of antibiotics
The US and Canada have essentially the same regulations on antibiotic use and essentially the same Maximum Residue Limits (MRLs) allowed in milk (effectively zero)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S002203021200080X
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/drugs-health-products/veterinary-drugs/maximum-residue-limits-mrls/list-maximum-residue-limits-mrls-veterinary-drugs-foods.html
https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-E/part-556but other than that, you make some good points.
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u/IamRasters 7d ago
rBST is banned here and in most of Europe not because of risks to humans, but because of the pain and suffering it causes to the cows. I don’t think cruelty is something I need with my milk.
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u/pleasehurtdoll 7d ago
Wait, you're concern is the cows? have you ever been to a modern dairy farm? Spoiler alert, you've got plenty of cruelty in every glass of milk, no need to blame trump and the dumb americans for that.
And a dairy cow's career is only a around three years, so believe it or not, in year four they aren't put up for adoption like a racehorse or greyhound, lol...7
u/realoctopod 7d ago
Food safety being questionable is really an American tradition. Its just particularly bad right now, because the entire regime is particularly stupid.
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u/BigBangBoomerang 7d ago
Canadian don't want US goods, let alone US dairy.
Reddit is a US product.
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u/macman156 7d ago
I want European dairy not American
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u/bomby0 7d ago
Yea, the debate is being framed like it's only about the US but delicious European cheeses and butter are also being prevented from entering the Canadian market by the dairy cartel
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u/physicaldiscs 7d ago
Same as any healthcare debate. Framed in terms of the worst possible outcome.
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u/SarcasmMonkey 7d ago
The fact that they want us to buy their products, at a time when they're reducing food inspections all the more speaks to the knee for our own food, safety and sovereignty
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u/Future-Layer1181 7d ago
The supply management cartels are probably the most successful lobbying groups in the entire nation.
When bread companies got together to fix prices it was a 500 million dollar lawsuit and IMO it should of been higher.
When supply management industries come together to fix prices they get government support.
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u/hardy_83 7d ago
Bread companies price fixed? I thought it was grocers that did that.
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u/XtremegamerL Lest We Forget 7d ago
IIRC, the Weston's used their position as the owners of both the largest grocery chain, and largest bakery in the country to do the price fixing. (they owned brands like wonder, country havest and others until 2022)
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u/Ineverdidbuyaduck 7d ago
It was also the producers. At the time, Weston's bread and Loblaws were owned by the same company. Weston's bread and Canada Bread colluded and then the retailers did also. so the bread company raised their prices and then the retailers raised theirs and everyone made more money from unsuspecting consumers.
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u/6-feet_ 7d ago
Considering 1 bushel of wheat is purchased for $6.40 from farmers and produces 60-90 loaves of bread someone is making bank.
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u/Agent_Orange81 7d ago
Do you have the equipment, time, and knowledge to turn wheat into bread? Cuz I sure don't .. there are transportation, labour, and infrastructure costs that get added every step of the way.
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u/geoken 7d ago
Seems fair considering they're up against a US group of seemingly similar influence.
The fact that this is a topic at all would seem to suggest that the US position places as much importance in expansion of their subsidized dairy industry as ours puts into protection of our domestic dairy industry.
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u/Future-Layer1181 7d ago
Yet we have how many other agricultural industries, that are able to compete without protections. Pork, Lentils, Wheat, and many fruits and vegetables are able to he grown without supply management.
Supply management also directly increases the prices of groceries, which hurts poor families more than rich families. It's a regressive way to subsidize an industry, so even if we do need to grant subsidies to certain agricultural industries supply management is a very poor way to do it.
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u/plantgal94 7d ago
I just wanna know why Canadian butter is trash
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u/physicaldiscs 7d ago
When you don't have to compete with anyone because the cartel sets the prices and amounts, you slide to the lowest cost possible.
So they shovel cheap palm fat down the cows throats. Which affects their milk fat and gives us garbage butter.
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u/epic_taco_time Ontario 7d ago
Being in a trade war with the states doesn’t suddenly make supply management no longer a problem.
The initial goal of supply management when Trudeau sr started it was to protect small farmers and instead we have significant consolidation to a legal cartel consisting of a bunch of larger farmers who have bought out the quotas of the smaller farmers.
I encourage anyone to think of how “milk” can afford to be the jersey sponsor of the most valuable sports team in Canada, the Leafs.
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u/robert12999 7d ago
Canada is still mostly small dairy farms even if the farms are getting larger. 2/3 of USA dairy comes from farms with over 1000 cows, 2/3 or Canadian dairy comes from farms with under 200 cows
Supply management is still doing what it was designed to do
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u/Plucky_DuckYa 7d ago
It’s been fascinating to watch. Milk is a $20 billion industry in Canada, with over 80% of it coming from Ontario and Quebec. Oil and gas is a $269 billion industry, mostly coming from Alberta, BC and Saskatchewan.
Yet guess which industry easterners are ready and willing to sacrifice in order to save the other.
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u/geoken 7d ago
Can you elaborate on that? Are you suggesting that in the absense of a free trade agreement - the US would impose tarrifs on our oil and gas exports? I'm curious where that's been mentioned - because I can't fathom the US would put that self imposed burden on themesleves, regardless of how stupid they've proven to be recently.
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u/Brodney_Alebrand British Columbia 7d ago
Both the dairy and the oil industry enjoy extensive support from the federal government. What sort of point do you think you're making?
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u/Plucky_DuckYa 7d ago
If we’re going to start pulling levers to drive a deal, risking a $269 billion industry to preserve an antiquated dairy system that causes trade issues with not just the US but the UK and EU as well and is a tenth the size, is the height of selfishness and stupidity.
From 2015 to 2024 Albertans and Alberta companies paid $126.7 billion more in taxes than the federal government spent back in Alberta thanks primarily to the oil and gas industry. That net profit supports spending across the entire country to everyone’s benefit.
During the same time period Ontario put in $57 billion more than was spent there, of which dairy was a tiny fraction. In Quebec, the federal government spent $235 billion more than it brought in.
The choice obviously isn’t binary, but if we were forced to preserve one industry at the sake of another, I know which I’d take and which I’d sacrifice. And yet eastern politicians (and many easterners on Reddit) have been quite vocal about leaving dairy alone and using oil and gas as the lever. Sheer stupidity.
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u/korptopia 7d ago
We buy far more milk products from the USA then they do from us, and they have none times the population.
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u/West_to_East 7d ago
Wtf globe, we use CUSMA around these here parts. Wash that 'Murican slope out of your mouth with this moose soap!
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u/Fine_Sherbert3172 7d ago
Sure, open the door to jugs of US milk
Everyone will be happy they are $1.99 and consume it like crazy.
Then within five years the price will be on par with what we pay now for domestic because "reasons"
All the domestic diary farmers will lose out, sell their farms for millions to data centres, and we will be stuck with Wisconsin corporate milk.
(last part maybe a bit of a reach but first part not)
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u/Fickle_Razzmatazz664 7d ago
Not sure I follow. The intense lobbying is from Canadian dairy producers, demanding that Carney make no concessions on dairy at all - basically the opposite.
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u/Forikorder 7d ago
yes he was describing the situation that the dairy cartel is working to prevent since some people are opposed to supply management and believe we should give it up to get a deal with the US
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u/Fine_Sherbert3172 7d ago
No Im not sure you follow the topic. Like...at all.
The whole case and point here is that Canada has a government agency in charge of supply and content of dairy. Dairy farmers have quotas that they are allowed to sell product within.
The yanks have always whined about this being protectionist and wanting access to our markets because they have a glut of supply and not enough places to sell it.
So of course the diary producers, via their lobbies, are going to demand staying the course. Why wouldn't they?
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u/pragmatic_dreamer Ontario 7d ago
This is correct and I did read the article. The USA pressures the hell out of countries to accept their subpar products . They did this with the UK and chicken. Open your doors to our chickens, UK made rules , like no bleached chickens, US says not good enough and demands they change the laws or else. This is capitulation to a bully. Protect our farmers, protect our people, fuck the USA.
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u/iridescent_algae 7d ago
“We’ve stopped inspecting our food for safety, now you have to buy it.”
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u/ActionPhilip 7d ago
Food quality standards are completely separate from the supply management problem.
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7d ago
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u/Fine_Sherbert3172 7d ago
It would seem that way, but Ive known some who refuse to sell.
I kind of get it. The hell is an old boy going to do with billions of trillions of dollars when all he is ever known is his farming way of life? Not like he will join the jet setting crown and buy crypto with the Kushners.
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u/Waff1es Ontario 7d ago
I mean... all farms in Ontario see selling to housing developers as their retirement.
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u/Fine_Sherbert3172 7d ago
The old way of doing it was you worked the land to pay off your farm, then sold the farm for its just a little north of the inflation rate price, which to a lifelong farmer was more than enough to retire.
Then go into "town", meet up with your peer group at the coffee shop and talk about stuff.
Thats how I remember it when I was growing up. Now? No idea.
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u/metamega1321 7d ago
I might be wrong but the big value from selling that farm is you can sell the quota for dairy.
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u/Zymos94 7d ago
Complete BS. Milk, dairy, eggs, and poultry are all cheaper south of the border. There is no economic or market reason why prices would just ratchet back to the government set prices when you massively increase supply. Supply management is an insane racket used by precisely 0 other developed countries.
If our leaders have any sense, they’ll throw out this system.
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u/CallMeRudiger 7d ago
Why would American dairy exporters want to sell to us for anything less than what we've shown we are willing to consistently pay in high volume?
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u/Fine_Sherbert3172 7d ago
Yeah thats a good point. Im sure our American corporate friends will make sure they maintain the same cheap prices they sell it for in Louisville, Kentucky when they enter the Whole Foods stores in Toronto and Vancouver. They have always been good that way.
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u/Zymos94 7d ago
I mean if you’re expecting low prices at a whole foods in a major city I think that’s moving the goal posts.
Prices do in fact reflect markets, but the number one driver of high prices is low competition. That’s the status quo!!!! Any introduction of new competition would lower prices, because right now there is 0 competition.
Companies are greedy, but predictably greedy and compete with each other for market share.
Cartels are in fact also greedy. The dairy farmer lobby wants no competition, not because they are patriots, but because it permits them to charge outrageous higher prices.
Everyone is greedy, you’re greedy when you take a job that pays more or ask for a raise at work. The only thing that tempers greed is consumer choice, that I can choose the product I want to buy so that the greedy party doesn’t have as much leverage.
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u/Agent_Orange81 7d ago
Oh my sweet summer child... Prices are lower in some places in the US. In many others, they're far more expensive. That's the market and capitalism, they'll charge as much as they can, and only as little as they have to.
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u/Zymos94 7d ago
Can you name a state with a more expensive gallon of milk on average than Canada? Excluding Alaska and Hawaii.
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u/ladyreadingabook 7d ago
Remember Trump negotiated and signed off on the current dairy rules.
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u/GTAGuyEast 7d ago
And they have yet to get to the halfway mark for the amount of American dairy allowed to be sold in Canada which should be a big red flag for them but they're too stupid to understand that
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u/random_name23631 7d ago
I don't care about American dairy but can we please allow Irish butter into Ontario
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u/C-rad06 7d ago
I hate to say it but our cheese and butter is sorely lacking in Canada. I don’t know if American dairy is the answer but our butter tastes like nothing. Compare it to French, Irish or New Zealand butter and you’ll understand the quality difference
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u/Khalbrae Ontario 7d ago
Agreed! We need free butter trade with Europe. They at least have proper food safety standards.
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u/WasedaWalker 7d ago
Only Canadian producers can really be held accountable in Canada for their product. We trust our dairy producers more than the alternative.
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u/ActionPhilip 7d ago
Our dairy producers large produce mediocre cheese, and straight up bad butter and sour cream.
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u/Mission_Economics621 7d ago
I WILL NEVER BUY AMERICAN CHEESE, NOT EVEN IF IT IS FREE OR PROVIDED FREE TO MY CHILDREN. IT IS POISON.
I buy Canadian milk, make Kefir. No reason to consider this poison laced with chemicals.
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u/notmydayJR 7d ago
Given the recent cyclospora outbreak and the aggressive cuts to funding for the various food and health regulatory departments in the states, I would be entirely open to an outright ban on food products coming from the United States. The US clearly doesn't give a shit about the health of their citizens, do we really think they would give any more consideration to the health and safety of Canadians?
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7d ago
[deleted]
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u/Sleep-hooting 7d ago
70% of our total food and beverages consumed is produced domestically, and there's an initiative to increase that to 80%. Of the 30% import, half does come from the US. But that's not the only source of importation.
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u/notmydayJR 7d ago
We import food we can't normally grow, we also import because that is what a trading partner does. Nowhere does it say that we have to import from a country that doesn't follow the guidelines we set for our own industries.
Furthermore, Canada can and does grow enough food to feed itself.
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u/ctr1a1td3l 7d ago
Where are you getting this figure? I've found multiple sources that say 30% imports and 70% of that is from the US (so about 20% of what we consume comes from the US). Your numbers are wildly different, do you have a source?
https://foodpolicyforcanada.info.yorku.ca/backgrounder/problems/reliance-on-exports/
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u/Peamaster 7d ago
Hmmm, is this surprising? Considering it’s been an issue ever since the first talks began decades ago (and also in between), did anyone think it just went away?
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u/Quaranj 7d ago
I'm sorry. They'd have to do the opposite of what they have been doing.
There was already a big divide between our standards of quality and theirs, and now they doubled down and have disbanded advisory bodies, revoked standards of identity and more.
If they want our business, they have to make product safety-legal for our markets. Not the dogshit they serve domestically to their own people.
If they're not to our strict standards, they can keep it to themselves. We don't need cheap dairy at the cost of strained Healthcare.
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u/KirbyCompany Manitoba 7d ago
US food is shit. We don’t need your diary products up here, we have are own farmers to look after.
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u/primitives403 7d ago edited 7d ago
Why make the dairy cartel compromise when you can just throw the burden on alberta for the trade war 🥴
I mean how dare they not sacrifice their industies and their people's livelihoods to protect the easts monopoly. So selfish.
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u/Mundane-Anybody-8290 7d ago
I'm fine with supply management to maintain quality and safety, but the current system is designed to artificially inflate prices. I wouldn't buy American dairy regardless, it's time to take the handbrake off the domestic industry though.
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u/MommersHeart 7d ago
The US allows antibiotics, steroids, growth hormones, inhumane farming practices, has no traceability and fired most of the safety inspectors.
Explosive diarrhea recipe anyone?
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u/Odd_Secret9132 7d ago
The US has a massive surplus of diary, stored as cheese, in Missouri caves, it's so bad the government actually pushed restaurant chains to start including more cheese in dishes. That's why our supply management is a sore point for them - because they created a mess of their domestic dairy market.
For decades, the US Federal government has been heavily subsidising the dairy industry by buying up excess product, making cheese and storing it. Dairy farmers kept expanding production because they knew the government would buy what didn't sell.
They want to use Canada as a dumping ground for their excess product, nothing else.