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To my knowledge there are still functional family dairy farms here in Ontario. And the cost of milk, about $4.80 (Canadian) for 4L, and butter (hovering betwee

To my knowledge there are still functional family dairy farms here in Ontario. And the cost of milk, about $4.80 (Canadian) for 4L, and butter (hovering between $3 and $6 per pound - we buy it on special, it stores well in the freezer) is really not an issue even for our family of four. So far so good. I'm glad to pay it if it keeps family farms in business. I grew up on a dairy farm in Germany (in the pre-quota days). The issue is the quota system. A quick google says it's hovering around $25K Canadian for the right to ship one kilogram of butterfat (whole milk is about 3.5% fat) per day. This means the quota tends to be a farmer's single most valuable possession, and it protects idyllic family farms (good) but makes it prohibitively expensive to get into the business. All in all, you can drive around in Ontario's farm belts and they still look pretty traditionally prosperous. We must be doing something right.

gruez 6y ago
>All in all, you can drive around in Ontario's farm belts and they still look pretty traditionally prosperous. We must be doing something right. By having laws that force consumers to subsidize the businesses of special interests?
- jessaustin 6y ago
  That is a common purpose of laws. Most laws in a "modern" society are probably some form of that. As special interests go, dairy farmers seem more ethically defensible than armaments manufacturers. I wish my nation were more like Canada.
AlanYx 6y ago
It's actually not true that family dairy farms in Ontario are doing well. If you look at actual data (search for "D056 Number of farms with shipments of milk by province"), you'll see that the number of independent farms in Ontario has declined by 29% since 2006. You see the same long term trend in every province. At one time long ago, the quota system was billed as protecting the family farm, but in practice now it drives the death of family farms, as people with quotas slowly sell out to large producers and new farmers cannot enter the marketplace because of the quota cost wall. Ontario currently is tied with Quebec for the cheapest quotas in the country, but getting started in the industry is still impossible without huge investments beyond the reach of young farmers (e.g., the upfront cost just to buy just the quotas, not the land or the cows, for a small 100 cow venture in Ontario is currently $2.4 million -- compare this with someone else in this thread who managed to get a whole farm up and running in the US, including land and his herd, for around $500k USD).

gruez 6y ago

>All in all, you can drive around in Ontario's farm belts and they still look pretty traditionally prosperous. We must be doing something right. By having laws that force consumers to subsidize the businesses of special interests?

jessaustin 6y ago
That is a common purpose of laws. Most laws in a "modern" society are probably some form of that. As special interests go, dairy farmers seem more ethically defensible than armaments manufacturers. I wish my nation were more like Canada.

AlanYx 6y ago

It's actually not true that family dairy farms in Ontario are doing well. If you look at actual data (search for "D056 Number of farms with shipments of milk by province"), you'll see that the number of independent farms in Ontario has declined by 29% since 2006. You see the same long term trend in every province. At one time long ago, the quota system was billed as protecting the family farm, but in practice now it drives the death of family farms, as people with quotas slowly sell out to large producers and new farmers cannot enter the marketplace because of the quota cost wall. Ontario currently is tied with Quebec for the cheapest quotas in the country, but getting started in the industry is still impossible without huge investments beyond the reach of young farmers (e.g., the upfront cost just to buy just the quotas, not the land or the cows, for a small 100 cow venture in Ontario is currently $2.4 million -- compare this with someone else in this thread who managed to get a whole farm up and running in the US, including land and his herd, for around $500k USD).