Taking a Look Back

Supply management has been much in the news lately. Or rather, what is opinion has been dressed up as news.

What would be “real” would be the federal or any of the provincial governments making a move to eliminate the tariffs or quotas or assume control of the pricing formulas. None has. All have instead insisted upon their support for supply management.

A cynic might conclude that all the politicians are doing is soliciting votes. But that can’t be true. There are not enough dairy and poultry producers in this country to have meaningful impact on a single riding let alone an entire election. There must be more to it and there is.

Some of this can be found by looking back. What can be discovered is that 40 and 50 years ago there were serious people dealing with serious issues in a serious manner. Far from the simple and at times cartoonish arguments one hears today, 40 and 50 years ago the debates were multilayered, textured and complex and the standard free enterprise jargon was found wanting.

The reason appears to be quite straightforward. Free enterprise in dairy and poultry had ruled the day and the result was economic and social chaos. Provincial marketing boards with limited authority – in some cases simply the authority to advertise – were tried and failed. More powerful provincial boards were tried and in some cases were succeeding until product started flooding in from other provinces and inter-provincial trade wars broke out.

And there was always the threat from the U.S., which appeared ready to dump surplus production north of the border on a moment’s notice. Added to that were large corporate interests that were taking advantage of farmers’ weakened condition and moving in.

Then there were the prices. They were volatile in the extreme and reacted violently to even the hint of oversupply. One economist of the time said that a one per cent oversupply results in a 17 per cent drop in the farm-gate price. And the temptation to oversupply was almost irresistible. Farmers react to low prices by producing more in an attempt to sustain gross cash flow and in the hope that the other guy will go broke.

It was clear that something had to be done. There were provincial task forces, federal task forces, inquiries, studies, hearings by the House of Commons Agriculture Committee and the conclusion was that the provincial marketing boards had to be pulled together and that could only be done under a federal umbrella.

That was, for many, scary stuff. It was branded communist, socialist, heresy of the economic kind and vilified in less than polite terms. Farmers who dared band together were castigated and condemned and not just by academics and vested corporate interests but also by fellow farmers. Beef producers and their leadership in particular were outraged and tried to block marketing boards and legislation that would neither involve nor affect them.

In the end all the provinces and the federal government agreed to legislation that would allow the various poultry sectors to form national agencies. But the federal government wasn’t going to tell them to do anything. The farmers, through their provincial boards, had to want it. Eggs signed on in 1972 and turkey and broiler producers soon followed.

The critics seem to believe that this can be undone with the stroke of a federal pen. Unlike the Canadian Wheat Board, which is solely a federal creation, the supply-managed marketing boards and the national agencies were created by both the federal government and the provinces. Undoing national supply management would necessarily involve the federal and provincial governments and there is no evidence that any of the parties are interested. The provinces have demonstrated no interest in abandoning supply management and the federal government has consistently supported it.

Public attitudes are harder to measure. But an inkling of the sentiment comes from polls that consistently show that 80 per cent and more of the population believe it is important to support local farmers. When it comes to a showdown between corporate-funded think tanks and big city columnists against farmers for the hearts and minds of Canadians, it isn’t much of a contest.

This is especially true today. The middle class is under siege. The think tanks that today are pounding away at supply management are the same as those that were recently telling the middle class that their way to prosperity was to adopt policies that enrich the rich. The results are evident. Income and wealth gaps have widened. Unemployment and insecurity have risen. Even those who disagree strongly with the tactics of the Occupy Movement find they are sympathetic or supportive of the message.

I doubt people are willing to follow the lead of those who misled them before. I doubt the federal government would be willing to walk into a potential constitutional storm and I doubt any provincial government would willingly walk away from the jobs created by local poultry production and processing.