Jeffery Simpson on Supply Management

[parsley]

I'm a consumer on the way home from USA
airport, stopped in at grocery store in a tiny town
to pick up milk and bread after being away 9
days. the butter was $US2.99 lb. In local
smaltown before I left, butter was $CDN5.48 lb

I bought ten pounds in USA.

How $much do I love my dairy farmer?

Uhhuh..... Not enough. Pars

[Kodiak]

freeyourmilk.ca

[FarmRanger]

The real irony is that most of the subsidy gets capitalized into the milk quota, the value of which retires with the dairy farmer who was originally granted the quota in the first place. The only thing that keeps it going is ever increasing prices, which in turn increases the quota value for newer entrants. Almost like a giant pyramid scheme, with consumers funding it.

Supply management may have started out well intentioned, but results are deviating further and further from desirable for society as a whole. In effect, it is becoming an idiotic system that requires the poor to subsidize the rich. Much like the Monty Python "Dennis Moore" skit.

[Fransisco]

[chuckChuck]

Parsley, when you eat your lower cost butter remember that it will come from cows that were injected with BST. Not to mention the scale of some of the US industry is very large. Even some of the "organic" had up to 5000 cows. Non organic dairys are fed every conceivable source of waste products including recycled chicken manure in some states such as california. It may be cheap but is the quality good compared to grass and grain fed? Mainstream americain cheese really is not very good. Price isn't everything.

[gregpet]

" Price isn't everything."

When you are selling its mostly everything.