Today’s comments were selected from the contributed column For dairy farmers like myself, USMCA is another kick in the teeth by Julaine Treur, a dairy farmer in Agassiz, B.C.
Milk is pictured at a grocery store in North Vancouver, B.C., Monday, Sept. 24, 2018.JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
As a Canadian dairy consumer, I will continue to only purchase Canadian dairy products. Price is not the issue. We are all in this. Make it easy; big maple leaf on your logo. - LMF and clan
I understand this has impacted you. However consumers should have access to dairy at the lowest cost in the market. You have access to the lowest cost for anything you buy. Why should anyone not have that right for dairy? - DaveJ0
There is a big opportunity for dairy producers to brand Canadian. In this trade environment, plenty of people who are fortunate enough to have discretionary spending in their budgets will pay a bit more to support domestic farmers and Canadian milk products on principle. - Heather Geverding
Farming is a tough way to make a living and I applaud those who engage in it. The thing is, it is a business and if you want to succeed, you have to do marketing. The time is ripe for Canadian Dairy Farmers to band together and encourage consumers to jump on the “buy local” bandwagon for dairy products. I personally am okay with paying more for my dairy products knowing that it will keep farm families in business. - JohnnyCoast
In response to JohnnyCoast:
I agree with your support for "buy local" but your other arguments were addressed decades ago.
The Ontario Milk Marketing Board is precisely that: a mechanism to market farmers' milk. Marketing one's produce, as with production from any business, is a costly activity in terms of both time and money. When you're milking twice a day, mucking out, making hay & doing repairs, etc, what farmer has time to market the milk that's sitting in the bulk tank? Furthermore, other than day-old chicks I can't think of a commodity that's more perishable than milk. It has to kept cool & clean and sold within a couple of days.
Old-timers tell of the chaos that was the norm prior to supply management: seasonal overproduction, dairies swamped, rock-bottom farmgate prices, sometimes outright refusal of milk because the local dairy was already over-capacity... in which case the farmer had no choice but to dump and hope for better news in two days' time. Most consumers have no appreciation for any of this. Unfortunately, they believe the stories that they are being gouged at the supermarket by cushy, un-innovative cartel operators who are laughing all the way to the bank. - Rick Munroe
From a business economic perspective, the value of the milk quota is equal to the present value of all the future excess profits that dairy farmers will earn. If there was no excess profit the quota would have no value. Canadian consumers are being taken advantage of and our politicians are the great enablers. We should follow Australia’s example and phase this misbegotten policy out. This will continue until Canadians make it known that they will no longer countenance being treated unfairly. - Frosty Canuck
From the Comments is a new feature designed to highlight interesting and thoughtful contributions from our readers. Some comments have been edited for clarity. Everyone can read the comments but only subscribers will be able to contribute. Thank you to everyone furthering debate across our site.