Canada dumps good milk down the drain while people go hungry and suffer high food prices. The supply management system is not perfect.

▲

b112 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You can't produce an exact amount of food. It isn't an assembly line, it's farming, it's biological.

You need to aim for excess, to ensure enough is produced during drought, animal sickness, and other variability.

What Canada does is ensure there is excess, but not crazy amounts. It also ensures the market price is fair to farmers.

What you call "high food price" we call "farmers not going bankrupt".

And while nothing is perfect, supply management is far better than the alternatives.

▲

9rx 12 hours ago | parent [-]

> supply management is far better than the alternatives.

Why, then, only dairy, poultry, eggs, and — at least until 2007 when the government bought back the quota — tobacco production? If the farmers growing the foods that are actually deemed important in a healthy diet end up bankrupt, no big deal?

> It also ensures the market price is fair to farmers.

Well, it creates a two-tier system where the 'blessed' farmers who are born into it (or born into a European farm that can be sold at a high enough price to buy a farmer in Canada out) have artificially high incomes to spend on land, equipment, etc. at inflated prices. It is hard to think that is fair to all the other farmers who have to compete against the farmers of the world when selling their product but have to pay supply managed farmer prices for inputs.

I suppose everything is in the eye of the beholder. I'll grant you that all the other farmers' retirement plan is to sell off their land to a supply managed farmer who will pay way more than it is worth. That keeps the peace. Bit sad to see everything go to those producers who get special treatment, though.

▲

foofoo55 11 hours ago | parent [-]

Supply management does have its problems, but given the involvement of imperfect humans nothing will be without problems. Canadian pork, beef, and vegetable farmers that I personally know also complain that they can't enact supply management for their sector. They also envy the appearance of high profits, an easy life, and government subsidies & bailouts (yes, Canadian dairy farmers still receive those) for those in a supply managed sector.

At the end of the day, consumers get stable and somewhat realistic prices and supply, while farmers also get stable income.

▲

9rx 9 hours ago | parent [-]

> consumers get stable and somewhat realistic prices [...] while farmers also get stable income.

Which? You can't have both. Input costs are subject to the whims of non-supply managed markets. When, say, input costs rise either the farmer has to absorb that cost (unstable income), or the cost has to be passed on to the customer (unstable consumer price).

> and supply

Oh? https://www.ctvnews.ca/atlantic/article/some-maritime-grocer..., https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/cana..., https://farmersforum.com/cracks-in-supply-management/

▲

yetihehe 7 hours ago | parent [-]

> > consumers get stable and somewhat realistic prices [...] while farmers also get stable income.

> Which? You can't have both

Maybe not in USA. Looks like another problem that only one developed country says is impossible to solve.

	▲	9rx an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		> Maybe not in USA. Maybe not. I grew up on a Canadian dairy farm, and have continued to farm in Canada ever since, so that is beyond my expertise. I have not participated in US-based farming. I can only meaningfully speak to Canadian agriculture. A connection to the USA is interesting, but what you are trying to get across is not entirely understood on my end. Perhaps not having ties to the USA means I don't have an implied context? Fill me in. I am curious.
	▲	mlrtime 4 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		But it is solved here, its whats happening. Food prices are mostly stable (relatively speaking)

▲

miffy900 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

>Canada dumps good milk down the drain while people go hungry and suffer high food prices

I'm not sure if you realise this, but the exact same thing happens in the US.