Supply management Issues： Cory is triggered by dairy price spikes
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
198.88927
Summary
supply management is a Soviet-style system that controls all production of dairy, egg, and poultry products in Canada. It s illegal to produce and sell any of those items if you don t have a quota issued by the state and controlled by a small number of cartels.
Transcript
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So the time is now and the place is Canada. This is the moment. This is the time, guys, when supply management,
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remember, we don't hear about it often enough in my view,
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it's supposed to protect us from all these price spikes in food products during extraordinary circumstances.
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This is when we should be laughing at the world as they deal with hyperinflation within their food markets
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while we enjoy our coddled and price-protected dairy, egg, and poultry industries.
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At least that's what proponents of supply management have been telling us for decades,
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as Canadians have been soaked with some of the highest dairy prices on earth.
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We were told those high prices were something of an investment.
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Paying now would save us from paying later when we'd really need it.
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Supply management would guarantee food security for us all when world supply becomes scarce.
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Look, supply management's a Soviet-style system that controls all production of dairy, egg, and poultry products.
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It's literally illegal to produce and sell any of those items if you don't have a quota issued by the state
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Some people say it's an exaggeration to call it Soviet-style.
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Well, when I could be criminally charged for selling milk or owning over 300 chickens,
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and some producers literally actually dump dairy products into the ditch
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because if they overproduce and try to sell it, they'll have broken the law.
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The system really is that ridiculous and rigid.
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So now that we're seeing inflation spiking around the world due to a number of factors,
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how well is supply management doing in keeping our dairy prices stable?
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Not only are supply-managed products rising in price,
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they're rising faster than any other food products.
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They should be the slowest to rise if we were supposed to believe those people
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Food produced under the supply management system is more expensive than any other products.
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Supply management has accomplished the exact opposite of what it's supposed to do.
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Dairy and egg inflation prices are leading all other foods right now
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as prices are rising faster than we've seen since 1983.
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And these products are essential ingredients in many other processed foods and restaurant dishes.
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So those prices are going to contribute to higher costs on everything you eat.
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The other aspect they like to talk about, well, how about protecting the family farm?
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Proponents of supply management have insisted for decades
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that small farms would be wiped out and we would be dominated by a small number of corporate farms
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if we don't maintain the supply management system.
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Well, in the 1970s, Canada had about 145,000 dairy producers.
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Expensive dairy quotas ensured that only large corporations and operations were sustainable
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and the family dairy operations fell by the wayside.
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Most of those massive dairy farms are in Quebec, of course, and that's a large factor in why
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conservative and liberal politicians alike are terrified of speaking out against this rotten system.
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The average Canadian dairy farm, by the way, nets $5 million a year.
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We're talking about the little mom-and-pop operations of yesteryear.
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Dairy farmers love to plead poverty, but the statistics just don't show it.
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While dairy producers around the world enjoy broad export markets and have flourishing small cottage producers
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who make creative products such as specialty cheeses and ice creams,
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Canada languishes with high prices, poor variety, and bans small producers from entering the market.
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We can't pretend it's impossible to get rid of this rotten system of government control either.
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New Zealand and Australia had systems just like ours, and they got rid of them.
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New Zealand's agricultural sector flourished when they got rid of supply management
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Getting rid of the supply management system can't be done overnight.
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It's going to take some years, and current producers will have to be compensated
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It can be done, though, and there's no better time to start down that road to deregulation than right now.
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Canadians have been ripped off by supply management
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for the tune of over $600 per year per family for decades.
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And this is only going to get worse as we stunt our local food production
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in order to protect a small number of corporate operations.
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There just isn't any excuse left any longer to protect the archaic, inefficient supply,
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It doesn't protect us from worldwide price fluctuations.
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And it certainly doesn't do Canadian consumers any favors.
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Canada is one of the most vast and rich agricultural lands on earth.
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We should be one of the world's leading dairy producers and poultry and egg producers
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with a vast array of products and exporting around the world.
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Beef, pork, grain, even mushroom producers operate without a supply management system.
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Why is it apparently impossible for dairy, egg, chicken, and turkey producers to do so?
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Then maybe it's time to flush them aside and let real producers get in there.
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The world's heading into tough times, and we're not going to be immune from them.
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One of the most obvious and effective moves we could do to reduce the food cost burden
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among Canadian consumers would be to end our terrible supply management system.
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Now, if we only had some politicians with the balls to do it.
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And so even ones who claim to be conservative will not touch this rotten system.
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I've looked it up with chickens that you can own.
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But if you own 401 chickens and you don't have a quota, you'll go to jail.
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Yeah, like technically anyways, and maybe it'll start with a fine and so on.
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It's criminal to have more than 400 chickens without a quota,
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without this special permit from the government that they keep strangled.
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And nobody can make a living on anything less than a few thousand chickens.
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It doesn't mean you have to be a mega operation with hundreds of thousands of chickens.
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But you see these mid-range affordable ones cannot compete.
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We don't have a minimum amount of, you know, you don't have a quota on pigs.
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I'm just tired of the supply management art catchers who keep making excuses for this broken system.
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And Canada's one of the last countries on the whole planet that still has it.
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You, and I've used that analogy, and I'll use it again for people who haven't heard it before.
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You know, Jane, my wife, grew up in Rockiford, Alberta, a small dairy operation.
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And her father had a quota to sell cream, only a certain amount of it, but cream.
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So they would milk the cows, and this story is so common, and lots of people in rural communities can share it with you, and they know about it.
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Milk the cows, skim the cream, sell that, make some bucks for the family, use the milk as much as you can around the house.
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If you've got pigs, you'll feed it to the pigs.
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If you don't, you pour it in the ditch, because it's illegal to sell it.
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That's how stupid it is, and that's really what happens.
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He wouldn't, I say Lewis wouldn't speak out against the cartels.
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And Polyev, unfortunately, I was surprised, but I guess I shouldn't be.
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He said he would keep the dairy cartels going as well, which is too bad.
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He's been fantastic on every other front, but nobody, nobody can pretend to be a free market conservative and support supply management.
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Supply management is the opposite of free market, the complete opposite, the complete opposite.
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If you support this crap, you don't support free markets.