Canada's Marketing Boards In The Crosshairs

In a high-stakes food fight being waged over milk, cheese, eggs and chickens, Garth Whyte knows he has an uphill battle against the established marketing system."The Berlin Wall fell and this is going to have to eventually fall," said Whyte, president and chief executive of the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association.

"I can guarantee you we're not quitting and we're not going away."

Whyte represents a multibillion-dollar industry that is up against other multibillion-dollar sectors: Canada's supply-management marketing boards.

Heartened by the successful campaign to end the historic monopoly powers of the Canadian Wheat Board — that actually doesn't control the supply of grain — Whyte's organization and other critics, such as the Fraser Institute, are sharpening their attacks on the system that controls the marketing of milk, cheese, eggs and poultry in Canada.

The thrust of their argument is the supply-managed farm boards are artificially boosting the price of dairy products, hurting the restaurant industry and unfairly hitting consumers.

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