Farmers reassured supply management is here to stay
by DAVID SCHMIDT
ABBOTSFORD – Despite the increasing number of columns and reports in major media, supply management is in no danger of being dismantled, says Dairy Farmers of Canada president Wally Smith.
“I’m not concerned,” he said during the B.C. Dairy Conference. “I believe the government when they say they support supply management. It was in their minority government, it was in their election platform and it was in their throne speech. As long as we look after our industry internally, we have nothing to fear.”
B.C. Turkey Marketing Board director Rick Andrew says federal Agriculture and Agri-food minister Gerry Ritz and international trade minister Ed Fast recently met with the national supply management agencies to confirm their support in both written and verbal form.
“We’re as safe as we can be. Despite what the pundits may say, they get it. They know how much the hog collapse cost them and know that can’t happen with supply management,” he says.
“It’s pretty clear the media hasn’t been telling the whole story,” Smith says. “We’re doing as much as we can. We’re becoming more sophisticated in using the internet and social media to communicate our message.”
Despite those assurances, producers are clearly concerned. At their Christmas lunch, chicken growers participated in an exercise to send letters of support for supply management to Prime Minister Steven Harper. At the Dairy Conference, an impromptu producers-only session on supply management drew a standing-room-only crowd.
“My message to producers was that there is no way, shape or form that Canada changed their position to participate in the Trans Pacific Partnership trade discussions. In fact, the TPP framework was changed to allow Canada to participate,” Smith says.
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