by SUSAN MANN
Dairy Farmers of Canada officials are eagerly waiting for a call from the federal government so discussions to find a solution to concentrated milk protein imports eating away dairy farmers’ incomes can begin.
Canadian dairy farmers are losing $220 million a year due to imports of the concentrated protein from the United States, called diafiltered milk. Processors use it in cheese production.
To fix the problem, dairy farmer organizations are urging the federal government to enforce Canada’s national cheese compositional standards, which have been in place since 2008. (See related Better Farming story).
The cheese standards stipulate the minimum percentage for the protein used in cheese making that must be sourced from milk. In an earlier interview, Dairy Farmers president Wally Smith said the minimum percentage is different for each cheese. For cheddar, its 83 per cent, and for standard pizza mozzarella, it’s about 60 per cent.
Those cheeses are of main concern because they use the most volume of milk or ingredient, he explained.
In the House of Commons Tuesday in Ottawa, the Liberals defeated a New Democratic Party (NDP) motion, proposed by agriculture critic Ruth Ellen Brosseau (Berthier-Maskinongé), calling on the government to enforce the cheese standards. The vote was 142 in favour and 171 opposed.
Brosseau said she was disappointed Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay voted against her motion.
“All he had to offer was a promise to meet with our producers in the coming weeks,” she said. “Producers don’t need another meeting — they need action.”
In an emailed statement from his communications director, MacAulay said the Liberals proposed an amendment to Brosseau’s motion, which she declined.
“We are working closely with the whole Canadian dairy sector to achieve long-term, sustainable solutions to the challenges they face,” he added.
Brosseau said the Liberals had complained they didn’t like the first line of her motion, which talked about how trade agreements hurt supply management. She said she would work with the Liberals, but the amendments they proposed removed the portion of the motion that called on the government to act.
“That defeated the purpose of the motion, which was to get the government to act swiftly on diafiltered milk,” she said.
Dairy Farmers wasn’t so quick to dismiss the government’s offer to meet and talk about the milk protein imports.
Isabelle Bouchard, Dairy Farmers communications and government relations director, said the federal government announced Tuesday it will meet with dairy leaders within the next 30 days and “come up with a long-term solution” to the diafiltered milk situation.
The call from the federal government hasn’t come yet. “We’re waiting by the phone,” she said.
The federal government’s Tuesday’s statement was its second announcement on dairy within two days. On Monday, the government said it would meet with dairy industry leaders within the next 30 days, to discuss compensation due to the increased access the government is giving Europe under the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).
Even though Dairy Farmers of Canada is disappointed the NDP motion was defeated, it credits the New Democrats with shining a spotlight on the diafiltered milk situation in the House of Commons.
The NDP motion led to the government saying it would meet with Dairy Farmers officials “and find a solution,” Bouchard said. “Our main priority is action.”
As for the protest by dairy farmers in Montreal, who blocked the entrance to milk processor Parmalat Canada Tuesday, Bouchard said Dairy Farmers had nothing to do with organizing it.
“We saw it on the news, just like everybody else,” she said, noting the protest is a sign that frustration among dairy farmers at the lack of government action is boiling over.
Bouchard said Dairy Farmers has been talking to the federal government about diafiltered milk imports and CETA compensation since it was elected in the fall of 2015. “We’re hoping that in this new set of discussions, it will be them talking to us, instead of us talking to them.”
Meanwhile Brosseau said the NDP is not going to stop fighting “and being a voice for our farmers.” BF
Comments
If Canadian dairy farmers are "losing" $220 million per year because of diafiiltered milk imports, it means, by first principles, that others, mainly consumers, are "finding" $220 million in savings because they don't have to pay the rip-off farm gate prices charged by supply managed dairy farmers.
And, it's no wonder the NDP are solidly in third place in the House of Commons, what with the NDP's penchant for supporting about 12,000 millionaire dairy farmers instead of Canada's 34 million consumers.
Or to look at it another way, anytime supply managed farmers demand "action", it means 34 million consumers benefit from the delay.
Until now, I've never been a big fan of government stalling - however, this delay is entirely the right thing for government to be doing.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
Your "millionaire farmer" line is wore out . Any one with a 100 acre farm is worth worth at least that much in south western Ont. Heck in some areas 50 acres is worth a million or more because city folk most of which are accountants want their little piece of paradise .
In the same way that the term "Sunshine list" was designed to evoke disgust among the great majority of Canadians who earn a lot less than $100,000 annually, the term "millionaire farmer" evokes equally, if not more disgust, especially when consumers learn that supply managed farmers, the wealthiest group of Canadian farmers, acquire that status, because of legislative fiat, at the direct expense of consumers.
In addition, trying to shift the blame for high land prices onto city people ignores the reality that in Perth, Huron and Oxford Counties, everybody's land has increased in value because 200% tariff barriers have allowed supply managed farmers to bid up the price of land to the detriment of buyers from every other sector of agriculture.
I'd be delighted if my land was worth half of what it is now because then agriculture would be a viable industry once again, instead of simply a fiefdom run by, and for, supply managed farmers and their scions.
I'd like to leave agriculture in better condition than I found it - however, with stratospheric Price/Earnings multiples for farm land driven, in large part by the wretched excesses of supply management, that's extremely-unlikely to happen and agriculture is in a bad place because of it.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
You would like the value of your farm to be half? Nothing from stopping you from selling it at half the going rate!
But then you ignore that the average house in Toronto is now worth $1M. So why are you berating farmers with $1M real estate yet ignore Torontians with $1M real estate? Is the 400 series highway a barrier from rural folks to access $1M properties in Toronto?
I read this with laughter Millionaire DAIRY farmers wanting more free tax payers money, If they don't rip us off at the store everyday! I was in the US for 20 days in March ,in 8 states ,Dairy prices are 50% less ,better choice ,better quality and people being able to enjoy dairy products ,even on food stamps! Now what's that say about Canada's Dairy Industry, people here with lower incomes most can't even buy dairy products. Rich Dairy farmers need to wake up that the price they charge is outrages , Governments need to realize that this is a group of ELET farmers and STOP giving them our Tax Money. We in the real world in business get no FREE MONEY form Governments, We have to compete for the consumers dollars. It's time Dairy Farmers stopped threatening for free hand outs ,The COW is DRY! When most people travel south of the border you never find Dairy Farmers whining to the public for protection and free money. Grow up and learn to compete on your own without expecting FREE TAX PAYERS MONEY, Your all Millionaires .
Get ready for what's coming or get out of the Dairy Business and let the USA and the World supply Canada with affordable dairy products. Bill Denby , Importer / Exporter
Dairy types have been quick to claim, on this site and anywhere else they can get an audience, that diafilitered milk isn't used to make cheese in the US, as if diafiltered milk was somehow impure.
However, on page 18B of this week's Ontario Farmer, Ian Cumming, in his capacity as a reporter, notes that the reason it isn't used has everything to do with price and nothing to do with the USDA Dairy Standards of Identity. He notes that, according to un-named US "experts" -
"With the lower American price of milk, the added cost of modifying it into ultrafiltered milk doesn't make economic sense, when you can simply use whole, cheap milk."
Cumming once again points out that Canada really can't do anything about diafiltered milk because it is a so-called "new product" that cannot be subject to a tariff under NAFTA, even though the present Government has (foolishly, it appears) promised Canadian dairy farmers it would do just exactly that.
Finally, to borrow from the adage - "Live by the sword, die by the sword", it is only fitting that while supply management has existed solely because of legislation, it could die because of legislation, in this case NAFTA legislation.
Stephen Thompson, Clinton ON
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