Highlights
- Supply management is a made-in-Canada solution that creates the conditions farmers like me need to keep high-quality, local milk on Canadian tables.
- We cannot let external pressure undermine Canada’s choice to prioritize the needs of Canadians and the farmers that feed them. If we do, we’ll be giving up much more than shelf space.
It’s a simple reality: countries need to be able to feed their citizens. But in a world of one-click grocery orders, it’s easy to forget that the availability of food isn’t automatic. It’s the result of hardworking farmers – and the people and systems – that support them.
Supply management is one of those systems.
It’s a made-in-Canada solution that creates the conditions farmers like me need to keep high-quality, local milk on Canadian tables, and it fosters a sector that strengthens our rural communities and our country’s economy.
Supply management puts Canadians first. And that has thrust the dairy sector into the spotlight, as trade talks continue with our neighbour to the south.
But we cannot let external pressure undermine Canada’s choice to prioritize the needs of Canadians and the farmers that feed them. If we do, we’ll be giving up much more than shelf space.
A stable supply of local, high-quality food
With supply management, dairy farmers produce enough milk to meet the needs of Canadians. In exchange, they receive a fair return, and consumers get a stable supply of local milk produced to Canadian high standards. Trade agreements allow countries to sell certain quantities of dairy products in Canada, while our country ensures access to homegrown food on our store shelves.
The unpredictability of today’s global trading environment is a motivating reminder that supply management, which has served Canada well for decades, is a great foundation for the dairy, poultry, and egg sectors of the future.
With 9,000 family dairy farms from coast to coast, it’s a truly national, yet local, system. It usually only takes two to three days from the time I milk a cow to when that milk ends up on a grocery store shelf nearby.
Because we produce enough milk to meet their needs, Canadians can rely on Canadian farmers, not those in other countries, which is especially important during times of trade tensions, tariffs, supply chain disruptions or global price volatility.
Some countries would love more access to our market, but when trade concessions are made — as they were in the Canadian-United States-Mexico Agreement, or CUSMA — imported products or ingredients take the place of food produced by Canadians on store shelves, weakening our ability to feed ourselves.
We saw the impact of over-reliance on imports during COVID-19. Another real-world example is eggs, another supply-managed food staple in Canada. Earlier this year, American egg supply plummeted, and prices soared as farmers dealt with avian flu outbreaks. Luckily for Canadians, eggs are produced within our own borders. If we relied on imports, Canadians may have been subject to similar shortages or prices hikes.
Another factor protecting food security is the size and geographic distribution of Canadian dairy farms. Dairy farms – which are spread through all 10 provinces – average 105 milking cows. Having many family farms spread across the country that work together to provide milk to Canadians reduces the widespread impact of storms, droughts and diseases as production can be rebalanced and maintained.
A strong foundation for farmers and their communities
A strong and vibrant rural Canada is essential for our country’s future prosperity, and government policies and trade agreements should seek to ensure farmers have what they need to grow resilient and prosperous local economies.
The stability of supply management supports dairy farmers as they do just that.
Farmers in many other countries face volatility in the price they receive for their milk, which causes uncertainty for business planning. In Canada, stable revenues give dairy farmers the ability to plan strategic investments such as robotic milking systems or other technologies, which build their competitive advantage by helping them, maximize productivity, reduce costs, and seize opportunities for efficiencies.
The benefits go beyond the farm. Canada’s supply-managed sectors (dairy, eggs, and poultry) support nearly 431,000 full-time jobs and contribute $45.1 billion to Canada’s GDP —keeping jobs in rural Canada with local investments that support rural businesses such as equipment suppliers, veterinarians, programmers, truck drivers, processors, and more.
Each time concessions are granted, they negatively impact this economic contribution, stifle growth and investment, and hurt the communities and farm families who depend on the dairy sector for their livelihoods.
Homegrown standards
Canadians care about how and where their food is produced. Supply management avoids a race to the bottom by ensuring that high standards are applied on all farms and that farmers have the stability to meet them.
Artificial growth hormones are banned in Canadian milk production, and all milk is tested to verify there are no antibiotic residues - and that’s just the beginning. Through a program called proAction®, all Canadian dairy farms are audited for rigorous standards on food safety, animal care, and the environment. As such, farmers meet or exceed federal and provincial regulations.
And when Canadians see the Blue Cow Quality Milk logo (or Product of Canada) in grocery stores, they can confidently purchase knowing the high standards behind it.
In Canada, dairy farms are typically passed down from generation to generation. This keeps our sector future-focused when it comes to how we care for the land, water, animals and air. The carbon footprint of one litre of Canadian milk is less than half the global average. And as a sector, we are continuing to invest in research and share best practices as we endeavor to work towards net zero.
All of this contributes to the kind of resilient and sustainable food system Canadian consumers can feel proud to support in the grocery aisles.
Making our own choices
Ultimately, supply management strengthens Canada’s power to make its own choices — the power to choose how our food is produced, where it comes from, and what standards it meets.
And that’s not something we should trade away.
If we want to keep enjoying the benefits supply management has delivered for Canadian consumers, communities and the economy, we need to have the confidence to stick with our long term and strategic choices.
And we can’t let other countries make them for us.
This article was published in TheFutureEconomy.ca on October 27, 2025.
