There were several questions that came up at the Joel Salatin event at Brickworks last night that I can provide my perspective on. I didn’t respond at the event because I figured you all came to hear Joel not me.

1. Canadian Wheat Board: This one shouldn’t even be controversial. We went voluntary with the Ontario Wheat Board in the mid-1990s and have never looked back. The diversity of wheat types grown in Ontario has increased and I haven’t heard anyone pining for the days when we had to sell through the Board. In Western Canada Wheat and Barley are slowly being displaced by canola, pulses and other specialty crops. Wheat and Barley now represent less than half the cash crops grown in Western Canada on both an area and gross value basis. Wheat and Barley are in decline in and non-Wheat Board crops are on the rise. I’ll give you one anecdote that should convince that there’s something wrong with the CWB. If we were running our operation within the jurisdiction of the CWB, to mill our own wheat we would have to sell it to the CWB at the price they are paying farmers, and then buy it back at the wholesale price (higher) on paper. Each time I move grain from my bin to my mill I would have to write the CWB a cheque. The plebiscite is held up as saying that 60% of farmers voted to keep the CWB. Unfortunately, we had a minority government in Ottawa at the time. Once the politicians were finished with rewriting the question, nobody could figure out what the results meant. Final point, if you look closely at any ads supporting keeping a mandatory CWB, they are paid for by the CWB. Government bureaucrats are taking the money from their skim on wheat transactions and paying for ads aimed at keeping their jobs.
2. I felt the shudder in the room when Joel suggested getting rid of government inspectors. We already have lots of food that never passes a government inspection. I can sell you a duck egg without any government inspection. A chicken egg has to be graded in a room that a government inspector inspects a minimum of twice a year. In Alberta, provincial meat plants are not government inspected. In Ontario I used to be able to sell you a steer and have it slaughtered on a custom kill basis at a non-government inspected facility. The reality is, I’m in the back of our local abatoir once a week delivering animals and in the front and coolers once a week picking up meat. I know what kind of facility they are running. Oh, and I would never sell you pink slime disguised as hamburger but government inspectors are OK with it. I have an acquaintance that works in the health oversight division of an ag ministry in Canada that I occasionally have a beer with. One evening we were discussing the increased waste of government dollars on oversight of ag. He made a statement that I agree with 100% – you could fire every provincial meat inspector in the province and the number of cases of food borne illness arising from meat would be unchanged – because over 95% are caused by improper handling in the kitchen. If you’re cooking your meat properly you should be more worried about your salad greens. If the field worker harvesting them sneezed, there’s nothing you can do short of dunking them in a mild bleach solution. I worried most about contamination of our cut baby greens when we were doing vegetables, far more than I worry about our eggs or meat. Although you guys that like to eat raw eggs worry me.
3. Supply management. There were good and valid reasons why supply management systems were created for milk and the feather commodities. The processors were abusing their market power and the farmers banded together to gain market power. However, the leaders that created those systems would be appalled to know that the quota to own an $8 hen is now worth over $225. The quota to market the milk from a $2500 cow is worth $25,000 (capped by the Milk Board because it was at $27K and heading for $30k). SM is a regressive tax that transfers income from the poorest in Canada to the wealthiest. The only reason the system hasn’t imploded is because we have had a continuous influx of European farmers and money buying into supply management to allow the older generation to retire. To the person that suggested SM was responsible for maintaining smaller farms in Ontario. I disagree. There’s no SM in beef, pork, or crops and all have much smaller operations than in the US. There are “farms” in the US that raise more pigs than the entire province of Ontario. If SM was relaxed there would be a renaissance of small farms in each of the commodities focussed on non-commodity production. The egg industry in Ontario is 90% controlled by two multinational corporations. They are producers so they sit on the Board but they also buy 90% of the eggs in Ontario so they control who else sits on the Board and what the Board thinks. You may have seen the nice billboards that Egg Farmers are running features nice wholesome families. It’s a BS campaign to distract you from the truth. Both companies have farms both here and in the United States and regularly import US eggs to meet demand using the specialty egg rules. It’s getting better but initially a material percentage of organic eggs in Ontario (not Organic Meadow) were imported. If the carton doesn’t say product of Canada it’s not – look closely there are more than you realize.
SM is considered a sacred cow that politicians won’t touch. However, there are so few SM farmers in Canada, you would have to put them all in one riding for them to be able to impact the vote. You as consumers can influence the fate of SM. My preferred future continues with SM for commodity production and allows new entrants into the artisanal and niche markets. BC forced something similar on the SM boards a few years ago.

My two cents.

1. Anja Kooistra (http://Rollinghillsfarm NULL.ca)
   10:40 pm on December 28th, 2011

   Hello Stoddart Family, I am a big fan of Joel Salatin and hopefully want to meet him one day!. Don’t know where Brickworks is located, but if that is in Ontario, I guess i mist him last month!
   I live in Sunderland and found your website looking for articles about grass-fed lamb and noticing you live close by!.
   Is there more information about Joel where he will have his next lectures in Ontario!.
   Thank you for sharing all the information on your website. As a new farmer i am eager to learn. It started as a hobby farm, but since the last couple of years we noticed a demand for fresh farm produce and expending our laying flock and this fall bought our first Katahdin sheep from a breeder in the Uxbridge area!. Next season I am going to start Joels philosophy….rotating!, so this way we want to expand by adding broilers and turkeys to supply customers demand!.
   Thanks a have a great day!.
   Anja Kooistra