Easy Road To Riches: The Raping of Canadian Consumers

Why did the #ChickenMafia decide to take the easy road to riches, but which necessitates the repeated raping of Canadian consumers?

In a comment posted on Better Farming's website, an anonymous poster stated:

Not a Shred of Guilt!

There have been many Supply Management farmers in the past willing to suspend upcoming raises at the farmgate or even rollback prices in order to give consumers a break at the grocery store but the retailers have never been trusted to pass that on to the buying public.We see proof of that in the Pizza joints now!The same applies with Beef and Pork,while they were losing money on every shipped animal the Grocery stores made sure they were NOT!
That's why not a single Supply Management farmer should feel guilty about actually making money..the Retailers/Grocery giants don't !

 My response:

You mention that many farmers have been willing to suspend or roll back price increases to help consumers.

In SFPFC's  Blog posting of Feb. 28, 2013 we showed a graph of the #ChickenMafia 's handiwork for Canada Grade "A" chicken retail prices from 1995 to 2012.  It shows steady, managed growth in retail chicken prices of 3.54% per year, non-stop for 17 years (all available Stats Can data). Whether they were willing or not to roll back prices, the #ChickenMafia didn't do it.

Ah, you say, but those are retail prices, and the #ChickenMafia only controls farm gate prices.

True to a point, but the #ChickenMafia also controls the sale, marketing, and distribution of chicken.  The downstream distributors who insist on raising prices could have been red circled at their current chicken quota supply volume, and those downstream supply chains that choose to pass on the savings to consumer could have received the additional volume of quota that was distributed now and again.

The #ChickenMafia could have, but they chose otherwise.

That consistent price increase was part of the #ChickenMafia’s Strategic Plan, and they implemented their plan on the backs and life blood of Canadian consumers.

What the #ChickenMafia could have done was say something like the following:

 "Boys, we need to get a lot better, a lot more quickly.  Our chicken monopoly isn't our God-given right, it was given to us by the government as a sacred trust on behalf of the Canadian people.  Canadians want and need us to do an excellent job for them.  They don't want the charity of free chicken. They want affordable chicken." 

 "Canadians also want us to be 3-way sustainable; environmentally, financially, and in a generational sense so the next generation of chicken farmers have a future."

"That's why your leadership has prepared plans to help you rapidly improve your operations, so that you can achieve a reasonable return for your work and investment, and at the same time, the retail price of chicken in Canada keeps getting cheaper and cheaper."

"Our plan assumes that retail chicken prices will roll back at the same rate that we jacked them up for the last 17 years:  3.54%/yr price reductions.  We assume our COP (Cost of Production) will increase at 3.0% per year.  That's why our plan calls for us to improve ourselves at 6.54% per year.  I believe we can do that, as we're all going to work together and help each other, and do whatever it takes to make it happen."

"We think we have a pretty good plan, but it needs to be a lot better.  That's why we have come to you today, the true experts on chicken farming, to seek your input and help us build an even better plan."

"With that plan and much hard work by both you and your leaders, we will soon be the world's best chicken farmers; something that your family, all Canadians, and the world will marvel at, recognize, and appreciate."

"After our leadership by example, next we will share all that we have done with all other producers and farmers world-wide, so that they can more easily follow in our footsteps."

"Of course, that sharing and helping other chicken farmers world-wide will mean that us Canadian chicken farmers will have to continue working hard and continuously improving, or we will soon lose our position of chicken leadership.  But we believe that all of you are up to that challenge; if not today, then soon, for we will all work together and help each other."

"I now put the motion to a vote.  Do you Canadian chicken farmers accept your recommended destiny of working towards doing the best we can for Canadians, and being the best chicken producers in the world?"

To the best of my knowledge, Canada's chicken farmers haven't done that yet.  But if they so choose, they could do it tomorrow.

But they won't.

Likely, they'll scoff, call me names, summarily dismiss and never consider this idea until it's too late to save themselves.

That's why Small Flock Poultry Farmers of Canada (“SFPFC”) exists.

SFPFC will work tirelessly towards encouraging (or forcing) the changes that must occur in the Supply Management systems of Canada.


Glenn Black, President
Small Flock Poultry Farmers of Canada