Editor:
Liberal leadership contender Martha Hall Findlay says the dairy supply management system should be done away with so that the consumer can save a few cents on dairy products.
If Ms. Findlay has her way she will flood the market with products from Europe and the U.S., therefore throwing dairy farmers in this province and across Canada into bankruptcy. I am not a farmer, but I know the large majority of dairy farmers are family operated and work 12-hour days seven days a week.
Sure our supply management system costs consumers a little more money but consider what you are comparing it with. In the U.S. and Europe, there is no such system so farmers produce far more milk than they can sell. So in order to keep them from going out of business, governments give them massive subsidies.
In Europe, the yearly farm subsidy is $100 billion and the total U.S. farm subsidy is $1 trillion. Here's what European farmers are doing with their share of the subsidy. They are dumping their artificially cheap products such as milk powder, butter, etc. on the market in developing nations, thus preventing these farmers from selling their products because they can't compete.
Liberal Ms. Findlay is advocating that P.E.I. and Canada drop its supply management system so Europe and the U.S. can dump their tax-subsidized dairy and other food products into this country and drive our farmers out of business.
I am convinced that if the other countries stop spending taxpayers’ money on massive farm subsidies and make international farming a level playing field then our Canadianfarmers would not mind doing away with the protection their supply management system gives them. Until that happens I don't mind paying a little more for my dairy products.
John Brewer,
Cavendish
