Based on my life experience, #ChickenMafia are mediocre to terrible in innovation and improvement for their customers. Due to the #ChickenMafia's arrogance and self-centered narcissism, perhaps they focus all of their innovation efforts solely to improve the monopolist's pocketbook. My response to this innovation comment is as follows:
You claim that Canada's SM is innovative.
Where is the proof of that bald assertion? To me, it seems like an assumption, or is purposefully hyperbole, propaganda, and an exaggeration?
Let's compare our SM industries to all those around the world who are forced to compete and improve, or suffer the consequences.
In competitive industries, I have seen an average rate of improvement as high as 10.4% per year improvement for 20+ years, which totaled 723% improvement over 2 decades (1.104^20= 7.23 or 723%).
Do Canada's SM industries achieve anything close to this? If so, where is the proof? If they did, SM food prices would be going steadily down, not up. For example, if inflation is going up by 3%/yr and SM farmers are improving at 10.4%/yr, consumer prices could drop by 6.70%/yr while SM farmers continue to make a "reasonable" profit (1.03/1.104= 0.9329 or a 6.70% decrease).
Let's look at Canadian factory farm broilers as an example.
Instead of retail price decreases, Chicken Farmers of Ontario have implemented chicken price increases that caused retail prices to go up 3.57%/yr on average, every year, for at least the last 17 years.
Ontario's factory chicken farmers have a Feed Conversion Ratio ("FCR") of 1.72 but New Zealand's Tegel Poultry for example (see http://www.wattagnet.com/154106.html ) has an FCR as low as 1.38 on a repeatable basis. Ontario factory chicken farmers are 24.6% worse than world-class.
Since feed costs are about 60% of the total live chicken price, the poor Canadian FCR raises Ontario's live bird price by at least 14.78% higher than what it could be if Canadians were world class.
Canadian factory chicken farmers aren't good enough to quality for the local public school team, let alone the gold metal at the Olympics.
No wonder Canadian chicken prices are 3 times higher than either US or world chicken prices.
No wonder Canadian factory chicken farmers cry and whine that they can't survive without a 285% chicken import tariff under SM rules.
No doubt Canada's SM farmers have done some improvements, but only at a leisurely pace; in spite of how they puff their chest and claim otherwise.
Being the best in the world is not easy work. We used to be one of the best in the world. Not any more. Canadians pay the price for this mediocre performance. The factory chicken farmers are guaranteed to get their, no matter what. What do they care that all Canadians get regularly screwed because of the SM farmer's mediocrity?
However, Canadian SM farmers could be the best again if given the necessary drive and the time to re-develop their weakened (and almost vanished) competitive muscles. Unfortunately, they choose not to, and take every possible step to resist the necessary changes.
Today, Health Canada reports that 7.6% of Canadians can't afford to feed their families. Isn't it nice that this impoverished group of hungry Canadians has no SM farmers within it?
Why bother working hard and maximizing innovation when you can be fat, dumb, and happy with a guaranteed monopoly no matter how inefficiently you operate as compared to the rest of the world.
Glenn Black
Small Flock Poultry Farmers of Canada
Is there hope that I convinced anybody to re-consider their opinion?
Am I wasting my breath and electricity writing Blog posts that few read, and those who read, ignore?
It's hard to know.
