The Milk Producer - March 2012 - (Page 24)

POLICYUPDATE By Sharon Laidlaw Regulated market lauded Two university professors discuss the sustainability and resiliency of Canada’s supply management system S upply management is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago. You only have to look at deregulation in New Zealand to know the benefits a controlled market provides farmers and consumers, delegates were told. Professors Bruce Muirhead of Waterloo University and Hugh Campbell of the University of Otago in New Zealand addressed the DFC policy conference during a panel discussing the sustainability and resiliency of Canada’s supply management system. They agreed Canadian dairy farmers have fared well in the new global economy because of supply management, which they said is more resilient to market pressures and allows farmers to earn a decent living. It works because it rejects neo-liberalism and instead follows the strict regulation of supply meeting demand, said Muirhead. Neo-liberalism is a form of economic policy that emphasizes free trade and open markets with less government intervention. “People in Europe are very impressed with supply management,” said Muirhead. “They can’t believe the sensibility, simplicity and rationale of the system.” By contrast, industries in New Zealand that most closely followed neoliberalism and fully deregulated have not fared well, said Campbell. Some of the most disastrous examples of deregulation have been in the wool and meat sectors, he said. He described them as “economic disas24 | March 2012 | MilkPRODUCER Europeans are impressed with supply management, Muirhead. ters.” Both sectors experienced severe undercutting of prices in key markets. “Neo-liberalisation does not provide a one-size-fits-all model in agriculture,” said Campbell. On the other hand, New Zealand industries that fought against neoliberalism did much better, Campbell said. Fonterra is a prime example of an organization that fought to maintain its co-operative structure. Today, Deregulation leads to economic disaster, Campbell. it controls more than 90 per cent of New Zealand’s milk production, and is the world’s biggest dairy exporter, with 32 per cent of the market. From its early beginnings as the New Zealand Dairy Board to its current structure as a “mega-co-operative,” Fonterra has emerged as a historic compromise between “the forces of deregulation and the politics of co-operation,” said Campbell. Dairy Farmers of Canada recently held its Annual Policy Conference in Ottawa, Ont. Assistant editor Sharon Laidlaw filed these reports from the meeting.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Milk Producer - March 2012

The Milk Producer - March 2012
Contents
Editor’s Notes
DFO Chair’s Message
Dairy Update
DFC Promotion
Farm Finance
Policy Update
Cover Story
Research
Applied Science
Ruminations
Udder Health
Markets
New'N'Noted
Back Forty

The Milk Producer - March 2012