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A socialist newsweekly published in the interests of working people
Vol. 64/No. 37October 2, 2000


Quebec dairy farmers seek price stability
 
BY GRANT HARGRAVE AND JOANNE PRITCHARD  
DRUMMONDVILLE, Quebec--Some 2,000 dairy farmers met here August 23 to demonstrate their opposition to proposals that would affect the way milk is marketed in Quebec. In particular, the changes would jeopardize the ability of small farmers to earn a living. Some participants had traveled up to eight hours by bus to participate.

The Quebec Federation of Milk Producers (FPLQ), an affiliate of the Agricultural Producers Union (UPA), organized the meeting. The UPA membership of 50,000 in Quebec includes 9,500 dairy farmers.

The gathering was called in response to a decision by the Quebec Agricultural and Food Marketing Board, a Quebec government agency, that would open a "breach...in the milk producers' system of collective marketing," according to an August 23 press release by the UPA. Under the present system, called the "joint plan," all milk is purchased from farmers for the same price--currently about $60 per 100 liters (one liter = approximately one quart). The purpose of the joint plan is to provide the dairy farmers with relatively stable prices for their products. Smaller, less competitive farmers gain a measure of protection from this setup.

The press release explains that the board's changes "put in place two 'channels' for milk destined for export, one exclusively for the use of cooperatives, and the other for the rest of the industry. In creating this parallel channel for the cooperatives," it adds, "this decision brings back the situation that existed 20 years ago," when dairy farmers were more vulnerable to the fluctuations of the market and to competition with capitalist farmers.  
 
Some small farmers would be ruined
A farmer from the Quebec City area explained that without the joint plan, he and many other farmers would have gone out of business a long time ago. Speakers at the meeting reported that in the neighboring province of Ontario, milk for export is sold for prices in the range of $33 per 100 liters--below farmers' cost of production.

The reason given for the change was a World Trade Organization ruling that milk produced in Quebec for export is "unfairly" subsidized. At hearings before the board the FPLQ had put forward an alternative to the board's proposal that both maintained the "joint plan" and complied with the WTO ruling. The board rejected this alternative.

In fact, at present the amount of milk that will be involved in this parallel market is not a high percentage of total production, since it only affects milk produced above farmers' quotas. But the UPA explains that these changes set a precedent for further measures that would harm dairy farmers. They could also be used to undermine joint plans regulating other agricultural export products, such as maple syrup and pork.

Between 75 and 80 percent of dairy farmers in Quebec are cooperative members. They have contracts to sell their milk to these institutions, which are supposed to simply process the milk. Cooperatives formally belong to the farmers who are members, but today outfits such as Agropur or Groupe Lactel act as huge agribusiness corporations defending their own interests.

"I receive about 50 cents a liter for the milk I produce, but when you buy it in the store you pay $1.10," reported Pascal Proulx, a dairy farmer in Mirabel, north of Montreal. The difference is pocketed by capitalist middlemen, including those who run the cooperatives.

In the discussion period, a farmer from the Abitibi region in northern Quebec said the changes in the marketing system meant that it would give his employer--the cooperative--the power to set the price he would receive for his milk.

Not all those who spoke opposed the changes. A small number of capitalist farmers--unlike the majority of meeting participants, who were from family farms--think they can produce milk cheaply enough to make a profit under the new system. A speaker who argued that by opposing the changes the Quebec Federation of Milk Producers was standing in the way of efficient "evolution" was roundly booed.

An FPLQ request for an injunction from the Quebec courts to suspend the contentious elements of the new regulations was rejected. The government board has not yet indicated when it will issue a ruling.

In the meantime, the federation called on farmers to encourage others not at the meeting to defend the joint plan. It urged farmers to send specially printed postcards to representatives in the Quebec National Assembly (parliament) and to boycott export contracts with their cooperatives.

Joanne Pritchard is a member of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees.

 
 
 
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