Highlights
- Every day on more than 9,000 farms nationwide, dairy farmers like me deliver high-quality milk produced here at home for Canadian families.
- This means Canada can rely on itself instead of depending on other countries for this vital staple.
In a world of shifting and uncertain trade dynamics, locally produced food offers Canadians stability and confidence.
Take Canadian dairy: every day on more than 9,000 farms nationwide, dairy farmers like me deliver high-quality milk produced here at home for Canadian families.
For us, this is about more than milk. It’s about the people who trust us for the dairy they love, produced to high Canadian standards, reflecting the values and ethics we uphold.
Farmers from every province work together to produce enough milk to meet the needs of Canadians. We do this under a system called supply management, which, at its heart, is about making sure we have a reliable and stable supply of homegrown food.
Canada’s dairy system puts Canadians first.
This means Canada can rely on itself instead of depending on other countries for this vital staple. While trade agreements allow a significant amount of tariff-free imports, controlling access to our market helps ensure Canadians can count on Canadian farmers to meet their needs.
In turn, our food supply is less vulnerable to external shocks like supply chain disruptions and trade wars. That’s good news for Canadians. It means Canadian milk and dairy is there when they want it, produced to the standards we all trust.
Family-owned farms are at the heart of our industry.
My brother and I are third-generation dairy farmers from Manitoba. For farmers like us, dairy isn’t just a livelihood, but a way of life. Our farmers are committed to meeting some of the world’s highest standards in areas like food quality, food safety, sustainability, and animal care. Every dairy farm is audited to ensure they respect Canadian standards. The use of artificial growth hormones is banned in Canada, and all milk is rigorously tested to verify that there is no trace of antibiotics.
Dairy’s impact extends well beyond the farm.
Agriculture has long been a cornerstone of stability and growth in rural Canada. And the stability of Canada’s supply managed dairy system helps us confidently invest in our communities. Dairy farms depend on a wide network of local businesses and skilled professionals such as veterinarians, breeders, animal nutrition experts, feed suppliers, technicians, and contractors.
This economic activity sustains small towns and rural communities across the country.
Beyond the farm gate, dairy transportation, processing, and retail employ thousands more Canadians. With support for over 270,000 jobs and contributions of $28 billion to Canada’s GDP, dairy shows that when local communities are strong, the national economy grows too.
As we look ahead, dairy farmers are investing in the future for the next generation of Canadian farmers, and the land they depend on. Across the country, we’re actively reinvesting and innovating to keep our farms competitive, productive, and efficient. At the same time, many of us are implementing best practices to help us reduce our impact on the environment. The carbon footprint of a litre of Canadian milk is already less than half that of the global average, making it one of the lowest in the world, and we’re determined to continue this progress.
Ultimately, the strength of Canadian dairy comes from the farmers who produce it and the Canadians who choose it. Every time you buy a product with the Blue Cow Logo or the words ‘Product of Canada’ you can be confident you’re supporting family farms and building a secure, stable food system that’s proudly our own.
This article was published in The National Post on November 25, 2025.
