Cammy Lockwood said she’s deeply concerned about the future of supply management in Canada's dairy, poultry and egg sectors as trade talks drag on between Ottawa and the administration of President Donald Trump in America.
Lockwood is one of the owners of Cobble Hill’s Lockwood Farms, which has more than 4,000 free-range laying hens, and also produces various vegetables for the marketplace. She said she is disheartened by Trump’s attitude toward trade negotiations with Canada and his frequent attacks against the supply management system in this country.
Supply management is a quota system that allows a set amount of dairy, poultry and eggs into Canada from other sources to protect those sectors in the country, and high tariffs are applied if countries try to exceed that allowed quota coming into Canada.
Trump has often said that supply management is unfair to American farmers and has tried to get the system dramatically changed, or completely eliminated, as part of any new trade deal between the two countries.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney vowed during the federal election last April that he would keep Canada’s supply management off the table in any negotiations with the U.S., but Lockwood still fears that the Americans won’t let the issue go.
She said supply management has done a phenomenal job of stabilizing the egg supply in Canadian markets that has greatly benefited Lockwood Farms and other smaller producers across the country.
“As small farmers, we have built a foundation on supply management in which farmers come together to ensure everybody has access to a safe supply of eggs and other dairy products,” Lockwood said.
“We were operating hand-to-mouth when we first started the farm in 2011, but with supply management and the quota system, which we became part of in 2015/16, we are ensured of good prices and a stable market for our products. It has allowed us to grow and develop the farm and continue in the way we want, and with something solid behind us, it’s also good when it comes to the banks and financing.”
Lockwood said if supply management ends or is compromised in Canada and more American products are allowed into the country, it would open the egg, dairy and poultry markets to increased volatility and would see large conglomerates taking over many smaller, family run farms that currently play such a big part of the Canadian farming sector.
“The average egg farm in Canada has about 22,000 hens while it’s two million in the U.S., and that’s why, without any quota system, the American sectors go through unstable periods of boom-and-bust in which, when too many eggs are produced, the demand and the prices go down and when too few eggs are produced, prices go way up,” Lockwood said.
“Without supply management, the markets would be much more challenging for us and the pressures to sell our operation to a large conglomerate would increase. Supply management is a form of controlled capitalism that keeps monopolies out.”
Lockwood said she and others in the industry have spent a lot of time and done a lot of work speaking to politicians and others involved in the trade negotiations with the U.S. and explaining just how important supply management is to both Canadian farmers and the country’s consumers, and their hopes that it won’t be stripped away as part of any final trade deal.
“We’re incredibly grateful to be part of the supply management system,” she said. “It has provided a strong foundation for many farmers here in the Cowichan Valley and across Canada.”
