4 ms·

Dairy is a bit different though. Allowing the states to sell their dairy into Canada would be cheaper, but their regulations on what you can put into milk and d

Dairy is a bit different though. Allowing the states to sell their dairy into Canada would be cheaper, but their regulations on what you can put into milk and dairy (antibiotics, hormones) are much more lax than Canadian standards. Because of that I'm quite happy to not let US dairy compete in Canada.

cmrdporcupine 5y ago
Yep and there's something more ... wholesome seeming about Canadian dairy farmers getting a leg up vs Bell and Rogers getting a leg up. In reality most dairy farms are large industrial operations, though.
- greenshackle2 5y ago
  Not that it really changes your point, but I suspect most dairy farms are small, but most milk comes from large dairy farms. Large farms have orders of magnitudes more cows than small farms. This is great for the dairy industry, they love to advertise that most farms are small, family-owned operations, which is technically true, while selling you factory farm milk. (If it's not intuitive, imagine a world with 10 farms with 50 cows each, and one farm with 3000 cows. I suspect that herd size looks more like a power law distribution than a normal distribution, but a quick google search didn't turn up good data.)
  - cmrdporcupine 5y ago
    There's probably information on dairy quota distribution out there. Might be interesting to investigate. My understanding is it's very hard to get quota.
angott 5y ago
Let's be honest, the antibiotics and hormones are just an excuse to keep the foreign competition out, and keep prices high in the process. If the government really cared about protecting consumers, they would not care about the country of origin. They would have import controls that ensure imported foreign milk follows the Canadian standards you mentioned. Instead, they simply slap an incredibly high average duty of 218.5% on any dairy product coming from abroad, no matter its characteristics, effectively blocking any import of dairy. There is high-quality milk made in the U.S. too. But Canada prefers to protect Canadian oligopolies and keep competitors out. And this way, consumers keep paying higher prices for the same product. Why not let consumers decide what they want to purchase?
- cardy31 5y ago
  Some of it is intentionally protectionist policies. As a country Canada can’t let the US dictate everything. If US milk becomes a necessity in Canada then that is one more way the US can exercise leverage over Canada. Given the last few years under Trump, I think some policies that insulate Canada from the nonsensical policies of an insane US president are quite responsible.
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  It's sadly more complicated than that. If we become reliant on US milk, American attempts to force us to lower our standards will have so much more leverage that they will probably suceed. So sadly for us to keep this standard we probably have to keep a similar system to the one we have right now.
perardi 5y ago
“Allowing the states to sell their dairy into Canada would be cheaper, but their regulations on what you can put into milk and dairy (antibiotics, hormones) are much more lax than Canadian standards.” Fine, then don’t allow importation of milk with those additives. What exactly is the market reason for keeping out, say, organic US dairy? (Oh, right, Quebec lobbyists.)

cmrdporcupine 5y ago

Yep and there's something more ... wholesome seeming about Canadian dairy farmers getting a leg up vs Bell and Rogers getting a leg up. In reality most dairy farms are large industrial operations, though.

greenshackle2 5y ago
Not that it really changes your point, but I suspect most dairy farms are small, but most milk comes from large dairy farms. Large farms have orders of magnitudes more cows than small farms. This is great for the dairy industry, they love to advertise that most farms are small, family-owned operations, which is technically true, while selling you factory farm milk. (If it's not intuitive, imagine a world with 10 farms with 50 cows each, and one farm with 3000 cows. I suspect that herd size looks more like a power law distribution than a normal distribution, but a quick google search didn't turn up good data.)
- cmrdporcupine 5y ago
  There's probably information on dairy quota distribution out there. Might be interesting to investigate. My understanding is it's very hard to get quota.

angott 5y ago

Let's be honest, the antibiotics and hormones are just an excuse to keep the foreign competition out, and keep prices high in the process. If the government really cared about protecting consumers, they would not care about the country of origin. They would have import controls that ensure imported foreign milk follows the Canadian standards you mentioned. Instead, they simply slap an incredibly high average duty of 218.5% on any dairy product coming from abroad, no matter its characteristics, effectively blocking any import of dairy. There is high-quality milk made in the U.S. too. But Canada prefers to protect Canadian oligopolies and keep competitors out. And this way, consumers keep paying higher prices for the same product. Why not let consumers decide what they want to purchase?

cardy31 5y ago
Some of it is intentionally protectionist policies. As a country Canada can’t let the US dictate everything. If US milk becomes a necessity in Canada then that is one more way the US can exercise leverage over Canada. Given the last few years under Trump, I think some policies that insulate Canada from the nonsensical policies of an insane US president are quite responsible.
sudosysgen 5y ago
It's sadly more complicated than that. If we become reliant on US milk, American attempts to force us to lower our standards will have so much more leverage that they will probably suceed. So sadly for us to keep this standard we probably have to keep a similar system to the one we have right now.

perardi 5y ago

“Allowing the states to sell their dairy into Canada would be cheaper, but their regulations on what you can put into milk and dairy (antibiotics, hormones) are much more lax than Canadian standards.” Fine, then don’t allow importation of milk with those additives. What exactly is the market reason for keeping out, say, organic US dairy? (Oh, right, Quebec lobbyists.)