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The New and Un-Improved TPP: A Canadian dairy farmer’s perspective

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Disheartening news for the Canadian dairy industry today…

You may recall our repetitive posts about the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement negotiations 2.5 – 3 years ago. At the conclusion of those negotiations, our government gave up a rather hefty chunk of our dairy market. It was sobering news then, even with the promised renumeration package. When President Trump refused to ratify the trade agreement and pulled the USA out of the agreement altogether, we breathed a collective sigh of relief. The US accounted for 60% of the collective Gross Domestic Product of the countries involved in the trade agreement; it seemed unlikely that the deal would go any further. Still, Canada resumed negotiations with the remaining countries. These negotiations flew slightly under our radar what with the much louder rhetoric surrounding the NAFTA re-negotiations capturing most of our attention and worried speculation.

However, today I was shocked to read a press release from Dairy Farmers of Canada revealing that our government has agreed to give up the same amount of market access concessions as it had previously – when the USA was still a part of the trade deal! In other words, more foreign milk will flow into Canada tarriff free. Our Canadian supply managed system balances supply and demand, and so increased supply from foreign sources will result in our Canadian farmers being forced to decrease production and therefore farm revenue will also fall. Not a pretty picture!

Honestly, I’m upset. With the loss of the largest negotiator calling for increased access to our dairy market, our government should have worked harder to scale back the access granted in the first TPP agreement. Does our government not value the 221 000 jobs that depend on our dairy sector? Our government has reiterated their support for a strong and vibrant dairy industry. This doesn’t look like support to me. It looks more like they’re throwing our country’s hardworking farmers to the wolves.

What will this mean for our country’s dairy industry? Will the compensation package promised with the original TPP concessions still be on the table? Or will our farmers be forced to bear the brunt of yet another blow to one of the pillars integral to the stability of our industry? What will the future look like for our industry, our farm, our family? Will our aspiring little farmers ever realize their dream? If this market concession is any indication of the value our government places on our industry, I shudder to think what the NAFTA negotiations may hold for us. Sobering times, my friends.

https://www.dairyfarmers.ca/news-centre/news/policy/dairy-farmers-of-canada-reacts-to-reports-regarding-the-revised-cptpp-agreement?utm_campaign=DFC18&utm_medium=SP&utm_source=FB&utm_content=lK

Christmas on the Farm

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(This post was written for Dairy Farmers of Canada’s Farmers Voice blog. Find it here.)

Christmastime really is the most wonderful time of the year. For our farm family, the Christmas season marks the culmination of a long year spent milking and feeding cows, caring for our animals, growing and harvesting crops, and general farm maintenance. It’s also a time to reflect on things that went well in the past year and on opportunities to improve in the New Year. This year more than ever we will think back to an incredibly busy summer and fall, during which we built a new barn to house all of our young stock under one roof. This project allowed us to demolish several dilapidated buildings that were formerly used to house our calves and heifers and, equipped with automatic scrapers, this barn will eliminate hours of manure removal each week. In 2015, we also finally completed our three year transition to organic dairy farming. We certainly appreciated the value of hard work and determination when we watched that first truckload of organic milk head off to the processor at the beginning of November! And this Christmas is made even more special by the addition of our newest farm kid: baby Connor is 4 months old and will be celebrating his first Christmas with us this year. Thinking back on 2015 certainly fills us with thankfulness for farm and family blessings.

Like most farm families that we know, Christmas is also a time to connect with friends and (extended) family. For us, this means that we attend and host various Christmas dinners and events. It’s always wonderful to feel the bonds of family and friendship strengthened by these gatherings. And, for me, it’s an opportunity to challenge myself to see how many dairy ingredients I can include in each dish served or brought to potluck dinners. Whether it’s generous dollops of sour cream in mashed potatoes, scads of butter slathered over a turkey, or thick layers of cheese oozing delectably from vegetable casseroles, I make it my personal mission to bolster the Canadian dairy industry with my Christmas cooking! I challenge you, my readers, to find interesting and unexpected ways to include dairy in your Christmas cooking. I promise you, everything is better with cheese…or butter…or cream…

But as any farmer will tell you, farm work doesn’t magically disappear at Christmastime! There are still cows to be milked, watered, fed. Calves need their bottles and heifers still love to munch on hay. Farm midwifery doesn’t slow down at all either – there’s still a good chance of being called out of bed for a midnight calving during the holiday season. But I wager that for farmers, myself included, this does not cause discontentment. For us, farming is a labour of love. And at Christmas, just like during the rest of the year, we enjoy being with those we love and doing what we love best. We love our cows and we love farming, so how could any of this cause displeasure? Rather, I find that at Christmas these tasks are all the more enjoyable, especially with more time to enjoy the simple pleasures of farm life: taking the extra time to pet that affectionate cow, marveling at the miracle of a new bovine arrival, or watching that delicious warm milk streaming from rounded udders is even more poignant and gratifying at this time of year. I truly believe that farm life is the best life, no matter the season.

Looking ahead to the New Year we know that, like any other year, 2016 will not be without challenges. This is especially true for our industry, as we expect to learn just how much the new trade agreement will impact us all individually. But I am fully confident that our Canadian dairy farmers and our dairy industry will commit to rising above these challenges. Farmers are resilient, as has been proven through the millennia; tough times are nothing new to farmers. Farm life is a challenging life, dependent on weather and crop success and good herd health and milk production. These new obstacles created by trade agreements will not cause the downfall of our industry. Just like we always have, we will continue fight to keep our industry competitive and our consumers satisfied with and supportive of our farms and our top-quality dairy products.

Farmers and farm friends, we wish you a dairy merry Christmas and a happy “moo” year!