Sustain Ontario’s Position on Supply Management
Posted: October 11, 2013
Categories: Food in the News / GoodFoodBites / News from Sustain Ontario / The Meat Press
The issue of supply management is a complex issue and one that is gaining greater attention from the public and media.
For these reasons, Sustain Ontario feels it necessary to clarify its stance on Ontario’s supply management system.
Most Sustain Ontario members are strong supporters of supply management and believe that the quota system is critical in building a strong local food and agricultural sector, one in which farmers receive a fair deal when it comes to selling their products. Supply management and marketing boards also play a crucial role in assessing and meeting market demands.
Sustain Ontario believes that there is a great opportunity to innovate within the supply managed system and open up the conversation between marketing boards and other stakeholders to find more options for certain markets that may be underserved, namely for pastured poultry and local/sustainable direct-marketed chicken. (See www.flockingoptions.ca for more information on the quota system for broilers)
Furthermore, the current system also leaves little room for new farmers to scale-up, or engage in diversified production. Raising a maximum of 300 broilers for on-farm sales leaves some farmers unable to meet their customers’ demands, but 90,000 birds (14,000 units of quota) is simply too much for most new entrants or diversified enterprises to invest in. These “in-between” operations are deserving of more options within the supply management system.
There are some options within the system that may allow farmers to circumvent the 300 bird/year maximum, such as devising a flock plan and applying for self-marketing quota. This is one great option, but it is unclear how many producers have been able to access this option and how many more might be able to apply.
Moving Forward
There is currently a great deal of work being done to address these concerns, but progress has been slow and key challenges have not yet been met. Other provinces have begun addressing these issues and implementing reforms. British Columbia underwent a review of all supply managed commodities and now chicken farmers are allowed to produce up to 3,000 birds each year without quota but with a provincially-allocated permit (a decision adopted by the chicken marketing board) while Alberta allows for the production of 2,000 non-quota chickens per year. In Saskatchewan, farmers can apply for a special 4,000 chicken limit without quota if they produce for a niche market, such as organic or halal.
The supply management system serves a vital function, but reforms are key for the benefit of both consumers and producers. There is a growing demand among consumers for pastured, free-range, organic chickens, but due to the system’s limitations, they have difficulty sourcing them. These consumer demands cannot be met unless the farmers producing these chickens have means of accessing new markets and finding processors for their birds.
It is imperative that the Farm Product Marketing Commission take leadership on this issue, engaging with stakeholders across the sector and looking to the examples of other provinces to forge creative solutions that serve a greater variety of farmers and consumers.
We encourage everyone to visit our Flocking Options page and Meat Press blog to learn more about the supply management system.
8 responses to “Sustain Ontario’s Position on Supply Management”
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NOT everyone is in favor of supply management Quota system!C
I think it would be better IF supply & demand dictated what we raised, if you can ‘t afford to feed them you don’t stay in business, If you aren’t selling then you aren’t in business, No handouts you make it or get out. Too much dictation in this life! really wish people had more freedoms including what they farmed! Just my opinion!
Supply management has a monopoly on chicken,eggs and milk production in this country and that is harmful to small farms serving a growing consumer base that is opting out of the conventional food supply. We, as consumers, should be ale to choose where our food comes from and because of supply management, that is difficult. The small farmers way outnumber the supply management farmers and yet the few control the market. Our small farms are the backbone of this country and the more informed consumers get about their food supply the more threatened supply management will be if they do not make room for the small farmer. A group that was formed originally to help all farmers sell their products for a fair price has grown into yet another controlling and dictating group that keeps small farmers out and many supply management farmers in debt for high cost of quota. How is that sustainable long term? We don’t just need room for small organic farmers, we need to include the farmers using organic, biodynamic and other natural practices that produce clean food for the growing direct to consumer market. Otherwise more pressure will be put on governments to abolish supply management completely before we lose our small farms and put our rural economies in jeopardy. There is room for everyone.
Supply management could have its place, but lets take the financial aspect out of it. If there was no money associated with it, it would be an entirely different system.
There are benefits to the SM system, but I think those could all be there with no monetary value placed on it.
There is truth to the comment that we as people need more freedoms, and I do have to believe that left alone a natural eb and flow of supply and demand would determine market prices and also give people more freedoms. That being said we’ve built a system up around “cheap food” and to now revert back to a full supply and demand system would put ALOT of people in a position where they are unable to afford to eat quality food.
What is the answer I don’t know, I just know we’re in a pickle and we’ve gotta find a way out.
Supply management might have its place in the commodity sector, but it should function as a marketing board not as a monopoly , Let us take look at what supply management has done in the dairy industry. When it was instituted, Ontario had over 40,000 dairy farmers, now we have less than 4,000. That is a lot of jobs the rest of the economy had to absorb. The favorite defense of supply management is that it does not require government subsidies, and that is true, but they have a government enforced monopoly which any industry would take over a subsidy any day. To have a monopoly within a capitalist society is an unfair advantage. If supply management works so well , we should have it across all sectors. Automobiles, phone companies, grocery stores ect. If we want competition in our other industries ,we should have it in agriculture too. If farmers do not want to market their own products, they are welcome to form marketing boards, but they should not be allowed to control supply!
Supply management keeps prices high in order to provide a “fair price” to farmer’s for their products. This is great for farmers (at least, the ones who have quota), but terrible for consumers. Supply management is why milk, chicken, etc cost so much more in Canada than in the States, for example. Allowing competition amongst farmers would drive prices down for consumers, and the result would be MORE consumers being able to afford healthy, local food!
Just because food is cheaper across the border doesn’t mean that people
pay too much in Canada. Chances are they don’t pay enough in the US.
What a shopper wants to pay for eggs has no bearing at all on how much it costs to produce those eggs. Don’t want to pay full price? Alright, pay the tax collector instead, because a farmer who takes losses on every sale will eventually call for a bailout, or sell the farm. These social consequences bear a heavy cost, so remember to calculate that into your brave new pricing scheme.
SM or otherwise, If we want to resist the corporate concentration of power in the farming and food sector, if we want to cultivate a new generation of farmers who produce healthy food for local markets, then we ought to pay them what it cost to produce this food as well as for their labour and skill, and don’t be surprised if a farmer values their labour at something more than minimum wage.
[…] see our blog for a review of Sustain Ontario’s position on Supply Management. Visit FlockingOptions.ca for a summary of recent news related to chicken supply management in […]