Supply management: Canadians deserve to keep it With all the rhetoric our Trans-Pacific Partnership partners have engaged in, it’s no surprise that there are calls for supply management’s abolition, despite its 40-year track record of providing fair returns for farmers and fresh, high-quality food raised in Canada for consumers at competitive prices. But the system should be maintained. Under supply management, farmers… The Globe and Mail: July 2015 Contrary to recent media reports about the relationship between the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Canada’s system of supply management, the abolition of supply management is, in fact, a lose-lose scenario for Canadians. Canada’s supply management system is in place for a reason; it provides stability for farmers and consumers. Every dollar a farmer spends supports a… Vancouver Sun: July 2015 Despite a long track record of negotiating trade deals while retaining supply management, pundits from across the country insist that the only way to assist Canadian export sectors is to provide greater access to our domestic poultry, egg and dairy industries by abolishing the supply management system. This is a narrow and defeatist view. Supply… The Globe and Mail – June 2015 Think-tanks and idealists often speak highly of the benefits of deregulation – but the real world shows that abolition is risky at best. Deregulation of agriculture in Australia has not benefited consumers, it has simply granted retailers the market power to squeeze farmers for every penny, while charging consumers prices that are markedly higher than prices in Canada. Dairy prices are soaring in New Zealand despite a plummeting world price. This is because retailers – not farmers – set the retail price of food. And retailers are always going to charge what the market will bear irrespective of how much they’re paying at the farmgate. Supply management guarantees… Sun Media – June 2015 Supply management has nothing to do with retail prices. Retailers charge what they think the market will bear. They set the price for food — and for everything else — for many reasons, including retailer competition and specials to get consumers in the store. Dismantling supply management in no way guarantees any savings. For example,… The Globe and Mail – May / June 2015 It’s as regular as the seasons – trade talks ramp up, and so do the calls from think-tanks and researchers for the end of supply management. It’s time for these bodies to stop hiding behind theories and rhetoric and tackle the issue out here in the real world. Supply management exists to solve a very… National Post – April 2015 The National Post’s recent article (Time to assert our power, April 9), suggests that it’s impossible to sign a significant international trade agreement while maintaining supply management. History proves otherwise. The Government of Canada has successfully negotiated twelve trade agreements with 43 countries since 1994 and all of these have opened up new markets, improved… National Post – April 2015 John Ivison needs to check his facts when reporting on supply management (PM faces ‘big game’ in Asian trade, April 28). He implies that the cross-party support that supply management enjoys only exists on its face, and that political parties will be itching to remove it if it means entry to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Nothing could be further from the truth. Supply management enjoys support from… Statement By Canada’s Dairy, Poultry and Egg on state of Trans-Pacific Partnership Negotiations Ottawa, July 31st 2015 - On behalf of Canada’s supply-managed farmers and their families, we wish to express that it is unfortunate given the continued business uncertainty, that the Ministerial meeting in Maui, Hawaii did not yield the highly anticipated, significant 12-country trade deal. It became clear to the Canadian delegation in Hawaii, which included… Farmers Fight False Information about Supply Management Ottawa, July 28 - For months, Canadian farmers have endured a concerted attack on the system that brings Canadians the dairy, poultry and egg products they trust. As the pressure to conclude the TPP negotiations in Hawaii this week mounts, so does rhetoric and the proliferation of misperceptions surrounding supply management through certain attacks in… Chicken Farmers Announces National Sponsorship of Canada Day in Ottawa for the 23rd Year Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC) has announced that it will serve as National Sponsor of Canada Day in the nation’s capital. This will be the 23rd year as National Sponsor for this organization, which represents Canada’s 2,700 chicken farmers across all provinces in Canada. At a press conference yesterday, alongside Canadian Heritage Minister, Shelly Glover,… Canadian dairy, poultry and eggs farmers continue to support the Canadian government position in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations OTTAWA, May 26, 2015 - The pace of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations has accelerated over the past few weeks and they are entering their most critical phase to-date. We appreciate the Canadian government's ongoing support for Canada's supply managed sectors and commend its efforts to promote and defend the Canadian dairy, poultry and egg… Chicken Farmers of Canada supports government announcement on antimicrobial initiative Chicken Farmers of Canada applauds the Government of Canada for the taking a leadership role on the issue of antimicrobial resistance and for announcing plans to strengthen antimicrobial stewardship controls. The Honourable Rona Ambrose, federal Minister of Health, announced Friday that the Canadian government would be proposing amendments to the Food and Drug regulations to… National Post Response The National Post’s recent article (Time to assert our power, April 9), suggests that it’s impossible to sign a significant international trade agreement while maintaining supply management. History proves otherwise. The Government of Canada has successfully negotiated twelve trade agreements with 43 countries since 1994 and all of these have opened up new markets, improved… CFC Announces Executive Committee for 2015 (OTTAWA)—Chicken Farmers of Canada is proud to announce the election of the 2015 Executive Committee. The elections followed the annual general meeting and the 15-member Board of Directors, made up of farmers and other stakeholders from the chicken industry, has chosen the following representatives: Dave Janzen, re-elected as Chair, has represented British Columbia as an… Globe and Mail Response I’m afraid Mr. McKenna is inadvertently advocating on behalf of foreign interests in his latest piece on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (Harper’s game risks losing billions in trade). By taking what the United States is saying at face value, McKenna is spreading their false claim that only supply management is holding up TPP talks. Here’s another… National Post Response Fascinating that the recent University of Manitoba report covered by the National Post (Supply management costs poor families five times more relative to household income) accuses dairy, poultry and egg products of being 23% more expensive in Canada than in the U.S.  In fact, the OECD and the Senate Committee on National Finance found the… National Post Reponse John Ivison’s comment piece (Moore trades tariff relief for discredited 1970s policies, December 10) on price differences between Canada and the United States takes an odd turn at the end, and suddenly spins up that old, tired recording claiming supply management is why dairy, poultry and egg products cost more here. So, I’ll hum the… Vancouver Sun Response To the Editor: Avian influenza is a challenging situation for Canadian poultry and egg farmers at the best of times.  When these farmers are further challenged by someone politicizing this crisis, then exploiting it to advance an agenda, it only gets worse (Industrialization of livestock farming to blame for avian flu outbreak, December 9). Canada’s… Globe and Mail Response To the Editor: The headline written for Barrie McKenna’s column (Nothing to crow about, chicken prices unfair, Nov. 24) is clever, but the piece itself plucks facts from questionable sources, hunts and pecks for spurious arguments and suggests that chicken is costing the consumer some big buck-buck-bucks. Nothing could be further from the truth. Canada’s…