Fraser Institute report

[dkelly]

any comments about the recent report on the Cdn dairy industry?

[farmboy1]

Just what I've come to expect from this group whose members seem to be unable to grasp the concept of an honest days pay for an honest days labor. To them, the world will be a perfect place when the middle class is eliminated and the power brokers of the economic world - the multi nationals or the large national companies- will be free to market cheap food to the masses without the interference of a vocal few. And why is the food cheap? Because someone, somewhere, has just about gone broke trying to hold on to a market for their product. Who do they think they're kidding? How in hell do they think dairy farmers ( or any farmers for that matter) have any type of real political clout when they are so few in number? Perhaps, in spite of the efforts of these type of reality-impaired groups, society has a conscience and thinks that there is still a place for the farmer in its' midst (alright , as long as the farmer doesn't infringe on our right to live in the countryside free of odors and late night tillage practices). As far as what the gov't is spending internationally to defend our system, so is every other gov't in non developing countries. We all want to protect our system of internal food production in order to have economic and political independence on the international scene. So, the author(s) of this report think we live in an artificially supported industry? Well, if they are right, I see a parallel with what they are doing for a living. The only difference is, I can go to bed at night feeling I have made a worhwhile contribution to society that day.

[bmj182]

Ok so where is my supply managed
grain, beef and vegetable farm?
Seems to me the needs of the few
are gained at the expense of the vast
majority. Australia, and NZ don't
subsidize dairy, what makes you
think we should too?

[liberty]

I'll be blunt here: supply management (or as I like to call it, supply mismanagement) is nothing but a legalized extortion racket. It has nothing to do with getting "an honest day's pay for an honest day's work". It's just a way to extract money from consumers at a much higher rate than would otherwise be the case. It also puts other non-dairy farmers at a disadvantage if they cannot afford the increasingly ridiculous cost of quota in order to diversify their operations. To add insult to injury, it appears that the Liberal government is insistent on sacrificing freer agricultural trade on the altar of supply management. I don't know how anyone can sleep at night knowing that they are sanctioning this travesty.