Summary
Canada has avoided the severe egg shortages and soaring prices seen in the U.S. due to differences in farming practices and regulations.
While avian flu has devastated large American egg farms, Canada’s smaller farms and tightly sealed barns have limited the impact.
The U.S.’s industrialized egg industry, driven by cost efficiency, is vulnerable to supply shocks when outbreaks occur.
Canada’s supply management system ensures stable production and restricts imports, keeping farms smaller. Meanwhile, U.S. consumers face continued egg price surcharges and supply pressures.
It’s worth noting that supply management is a type of central planning where we centrally determine how much we’ll produce and what the price of production will be.
Individual, often small, farmers then produce those eggs and get paid this price. The price and quantities are set so that it’s sustainable for farmers to produce. Farmers have the certainty they’ll sell their product at a decent price. They aren’t at the mercy of the market putting them underwater after they’ve spent large amounts of capital to produce.
Consumers pay a generally higher price for eggs than the absolute minimum possible, but we also avoid paying much higher prices during shocks and shortages. Our farming sector isn’t consolidated by necessity of achieving the lowest price.
We do this with more than eggs.
That sounds like socialism which is bad because it’s bad. Look what happened in Canada, they didn’t pay animal and worker abusingly low prices and now they don’t have insanely high prices. Without causing these situations they are denying large parts of their population high sustained cortisol levels.
This is why we need to maintain our threats of annexation. We must provide them the stress that their government denies them.
Broiler chickens, dairy, and other poultry industries have this.
We should bring it back for crops (return of CWB)?
I think Harper sold it to the Saudis. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some provisions that bind Canada to not create a new board. With that said we should absolutely create a new board. Use the crisis. I guess we’ll see how much of a Keynesian Carney is. Assuming we elect him of course.
Harper did more damage to Canada than almost any other PM (selling CWB, signing the FIPPA with China, etc). The fact that he’s back here (secretly?) advising PP makes me sick to my stomach.