Halal Hen Hoax

Ramadan will conclude in another 4 days, but has been marked by slimy people who commit or enable a Halal Hoax for chicken, or other meats.

Halal is an Arabic word meaning "lawful" or "permissible" (the opposite of haraam, which means "unlawful" or "forbidden").

While people fast during the days of Ramadan, they also have to watch out for fake Halal meats at night.

Global News previously reported on fake Halal meats in Canada:

“Halal is really important to uphold a Muslim’s spirituality, the acceptance of our worship in the eyes of God is dependent on it, that we’re only consuming Halal,” says Omar Subedar, a Toronto-area imam who serves as the secretary general and official spokesperson of the Halal Monitoring Authority ("HMA").
. . .

Subedar says that revelations from [a prior] investigation led to the formation of the HMA, which maintains a comprehensive listing of Halal-certified producers, brands and restaurants.
The next step for Subedar and his fellow imams is to  create an official, national governing body to regulate the certification of Halal products.

There is a growing Muslim population in Canada, especially around Toronto and the GTA.  Lack of supply and demanding customers entices the unscrupulous to buy or create fake Halal meats.

Some feel that Halal is solely concerned about the killing process.  Others believe that the entire life cycle of the animal is important, culminated with the proper prayer and process at the abattoir.  If you are looking for "best in class" animal welfare, you may be interested in small flock pasture raised chicken.  Check out the Mission, Vision, and Principles of SFPFC.  We believe these Principles of SFPFC are clear, open, comprehensive, and effective; unlike the secret, voluntary compliance or non-compliance, ambiguous, superficial, unverified, conflicting, or non-existent principles of the commercial chicken producers in Ontario (see CFO), and Canada-wide (see CFC). 

HMA reported:

"In March 2004 the Jami’yyatul Ulama Canada (CCMT) received complaints from the muslim community and from certain individuals from the halal industry that many things within the industry are not in compliance with halal guidelines. Subsequently, the Halal Foods Department carried out inspections in 4 meat slaughter plants, 13 poultry slaughter plants, 7 further processing plants and several meat & poultry retailers, all of which are the major suppliers of halal consumables within the GTA."

The HMA's certification trademark that will be on the label
of all foods certified by HMA

Any meat products must come from animals which have undergone a prescribed method of slaughtering (known as dhabihah) in order to be considered halal.

In brief, the Halal method of slaughtering animals consists of using a well sharpened knife to make a swift, deep incision that cuts the front of the throat, the carotid artery, wind pipe and jugular veins but leaves the spinal cord intact. The blood is to be completely drained from the body before its meat is cut. The head of an animal that is slaughtered using halal methods is aligned with the qiblah (ie. facing Mecca).  In addition to the direction, permitted animals should be slaughtered in the name of Allah (the Lord) and the person who is slaughtering should be a Muslim and he/she should be in a good mental condition and faith. All these steps have to be completed to render the meat edible for Muslims' consumption.

The long list of problems discovered led the Halal Food Dept. of the Canadian Council of Muslim Theologins to create HMA.  In turn, HMA's methods have been examined and endorsed by 41 different Imams and Islamic Scholars from across Canada.

So far, HMA has certified 4 poultry abattoirs, and 3 further processors for chicken (eg. chicken nuggets).

Halal has similar standards and requirements to kosher.  Kosher specifies how the animal must be slaughtered, but Halal adds spiritual requirements as well.  Inspection and certification of kosher is a more mature system than the newer Halal certification system.

Trademarks that may be displayed on kosher products sold
in Canada, showing the food producer has passed the
necessary auditing and certification for designation as kosher.

Late last year, the owners of a halal beef supplier in Iowa were charged with selling $4.9 million in beef that prosecutors said did not follow the halal practices it promised.

Some other fraudulent Halal cases have occurred: 

• In November 2011, a supermarket chain in Anaheim, California, paid fines of $527,000 after it sold regular meat as halal.
• A wholesaler in England was fined nearly $100,000 last year after investigators caught the company putting the halal label on chicken that was traced to a supplier that did not sell halal meat.
•  A manager pleaded guilty to directing workers at the Midamar Corp. to repackage beef products from a slaughterhouse that wasn’t approved for export to Malaysia and Indonesia.  The company has denied wrongdoing and moved to dismiss the case, arguing the charges violate the US First Amendment for "free speech".  Islamic Services of America, which certified halal beef for Midamar, said the U.S. government can’t enforce religious slaughter protocols.

Organic Chicken Fraud

CFIA is investigating allegations that lower quality chicken was being fraudulently packaged and labeled as antibiotic free, animal by-products free ("AABF"), organic chicken by Cericola Farms Inc.

The story details can be read here and here.

While Vashti Dalipsingh was the Director of Operations at Cericola Farms Inc., during more than five month period she alleges that she was repeatedly ordered to package normal broiler chickens as the premium grade antibiotic free, animal by-products free ("AABF") organic chicken; usually when they ran out of organic chicken.  Dalipsingh says she dug into Cericola's records and realized the fraudulent practice had been going on for eight months before she was fired in April (placing the start date at Sept 2014).  She claims that up to 10,000 kg./wk. of conventional meat was intentionally labelled organic to keep up with demand by Cericola's customers.

Running out of organic chicken prior to filling the entire quantity ordered by national chain customers (eg. Loblaws, Sobeys, Costco, etc.) is a dangerous occurrence that is not tolerated by these huge customers.

Cericola claims to be the 2nd largest supplier or organic chicken, and to have been supplying "organic" chicken for 56 years (ie. since 1959).  The world's first recorded use of "organic" in the sense of "free from pesticides and fertilizers" was attested in 1942; 17 years before Cericola's first use.

The products, which include Blue Goose Organic and Blue Goose AABF, ended up on shelves at Sobeys, Loblaws and Costco in Greater Toronto and in the Moncton, N.B. area, Dalipsingh’s legal team said.

Of course, Cericola Farms insists that all is well, their chicken is fantastic, and there is no basis for the allegations made against them.  Did you expect them to say anything different?  Cericola Farms said Dalipsingh's allegations "are frivolous and vexatious, and we intend to vigorously defend our company in court".

Blue Goose, one of the organic chicken brands wounded by these allegations against Cericola has said that they are standing by Cericola, as is Loblaws.  Loblaws was also reported to have said they would "act quickly" if the allegations are proven.  On Monday June 15th 2015 I spoke to the Store Manager of a Loblaws who told me that he had received a recall notice from his head office for a number of SKU's of Blue Goose, but he had none of the recalled SKU's on the store shelves.

If CFIA does their job, they can readily find other employees who witnessed or participated in the fraud, if it occurred.  Whether these other witnesses come forward will likely depend on how much fear Cericola is able to raise in the employee's minds.  If people think that whistleblowing will cost them their job, or perhaps everybody's job if the plant is caused to be shut down, they will likely keep quiet.

Forensic auditing can easily determine if more organic chicken was shipped out of Cericola's plant than what was grown.  Farms are required to keep records for at least 12 months to 7 years, depending on the type of record.  Inventory records are kept on the stock of organic chicken in the process and the storage coolers.  In a day to a week of detective work, the truth can be outed.  How hard will CFIA investigate?

CFIA may choose to telephone Cericola's President, where the following conversation might occur:

CFIA:   "Did you do that alleged organic chicken fraud?".

Cericola's President:   "NO!"

CFIA:    "That's good enough for me.  Sorry to bother you.  This case is closed."

CFIA wraps up another investigation in record time.  While CFIA may not be effective, they certainly are quick to start, and quick to finish.

In time, we will see what CFIA actually decides to do.

The other possibility is the unjust dismissal lawsuit.  While civil suits require full disclosure of info by each party, I'm not so naive to think this always happens as it should.

If it's like the Egg Mafia who were caught shipping known defective eggs by CFIA, there will be a giant purge of computer records, and mountains of shredded papers.  Of course, that wasn't criminal conspiracy to hamper a police investigation, it was just Spring Cleaning.

Canada's Supply Management System for chicken ensures that these multi-millionaire chicken farmers are the highest paid farmers in Canada, according to Stats Canada.

Importers of chicken are forced to pay tariffs as high as 285% so as to protect chicken farmers and producers.  Consumers pay 50% to 300% more for chicken than the rest of the world.  In spite of this, there are ongoing allegations, time and again, of fraud, corruption, abuse, and cheating within the system (eg. spent hens, fraudulent FCR's, contaminated chicken, chicken exports, IREP chicken, animal cruelty, and many more.)

Just how much further along this terrible path will we be forced to march?

Scams on Free Range & Organic Chicken

The Chicken Mafia are co-opting the terms "free range" and "organic" as a method of cheating and mis-leading the public, and gouging higher profits for themselves.

An anonymous poster on Better Farming was questioning the use of the term "free range", and how it is misused by some.

Free Range Chicken

My definition of free range is that the poultry has free and direct access to the great out of doors; can see the sun; can decompress and get away from their sisters; can walk through the pasture or woods at their leisure; can flap their wings & feel the wind on their feathers; eat any grub, grass, seed, or insect they happen to find; and do dust baths in the dirt of the forest floor to their heart's content. The 18" x 18" door on my coop is opened in the morning, and closed after everybody is back in the coop by dusk.

On my Small Flock poultry farm, we have LGD's (Livestock Guardian Dogs) who protect our birds, and keep them isolated.  If a crow, hawk, fox, coyote, or other wild animal is thinking about coming in to fraternize with our poultry, or steal an egg or chicken, the wildlife quickly reconsiders their plan due to our LGDs.

There are other Small Flockers who do pastured poultry on grass pastures using electric poultry netting, possibly supplemented by LGDs.

Pastured Poultry

On my Small Flocker farm, we are gearing up to do pastured broiler poultry this Spring.  Inside each 10 ft x 12 ft open air cage on a grassy pasture are 75 broiler chickens.  Each cage is moved forward every day to fresh grass for the birds to eat and scratch.  The birds receive a fresh patch of pasture during each day for their entire grow cycle.  Each patch of pasture is only re-used again after 6 weeks of rest and recovery.  Any bugs that enter through the chicken wire, seeds found, grubs in the dirt, or grass under the bottomless cage is welcome food for the birds, who then eat 40% less of the commercially manufactured feed which supplements the pasture.

Is "Organic Chicken" Better. or a Scam?

Beside free range, "Organic Chicken" is another weird definition that is used to confuse and mislead consumers.  The greedy SM cheats salivate over the 30% or higher premium prices available for "organic chicken".  The CFIA organic regulation says,

" 6.8.1 The operator of an organic livestock operation shall establish and maintain animal living-conditions that accommodate the health and natural behaviour of all animals, including:   a) access to the outdoors, shade, shelter, rotational pasture, exercise areas, fresh air and natural daylight suitable to the species, its stage of production, the climate and the environment;"

Unfortunately, the CAFO's (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) and "Big Food" have lobbied, done regulatory capture, redefined, twisted, and misinterpreted the organic standard to suit their profit seeking goals.

If the CAFO cheaters open a 8" x 8" door at one obscure corner of a chicken factory barn holding 200,000 birds, and that door leads to a tiny screened-in porch, then the unholy alliance of CAFO cheats and Big Food often label their chicken "free range", and qualify for "organically raised" under the regulations.

Of course, the porch will hold only a tiny fraction (maybe a hundred birds or so) of the 200,000 birds, and even fewer birds ever discover the well hidden door.  Chickens are forced to live in the cesspool of CAFO chicken factories, the method used by most or all of Canada's Supply Management chicken growers.  CAFO birds are crammed in, cheek to jowl, as many as 196,000 birds on one farm.  The birds are forced to live in their own manure for their entire life, forced to breath the toxic dust cloud that never goes away.  They are force fed antibiotics, other drugs, and weird chemical brews so as to keep them alive in spite of the poor living conditions. 

Hopefully it will become clear to all consumers that CAFO chicken factories have found a convenient loophole in the regulations to subvert and mislead consumers, as usual.

Sooner or later, consumers will realize the fraud.  Eventually, the mounting breach of trust by SM's foul chicken factories will be exposed on these issues.  One day soon, all of those lies or half truths will totally rupture the trust between CAFO cheats and society, and the public will totally abandon this terribly flawed system.

Small Flocker Chicken Alternative

As an alternative to all of the crap, cheating, and misleading described above, small flock poultry farmers have an alternative we'd like to offer to Ontario and its citizens.

There are more than 15,000 Small Flock chicken farmers in Ontario.  If the government regulations were made more favorable to small flockers (as opposed to the monopoly of cheating and misleading Chicken Mafia henchmen), then some or most of Small Flockers would be ready, willing, and capable of growing safe, affordable, nutritious, locally grown chicken for their family, friends, and local communities.

The choice is clear.  We just need help getting the word out.  Once the public has all the necessary facts, then the public can make an informed decision.  Choice and freedom.  That's what a democracy is supposed to be all about.

That's exactly what the Chicken Mafia are fearful of, and are desperately fighting against.

Soon, you will need to stand up and make a choice as to which side you are on.

Chicken Mafia causes another disaster

There is a full-blown crisis in the Canadian chicken industry.  Sound the alarms.  This crisis threatens the loss of 56,000 Canadian jobs, and $6.5 Billion GDP.

Spent fowl imports to Canada are probably being used to defraud Canadians, and destroy the Canadian chicken industry.

Spent fowl are female chickens that have spent an entire year laying eggs, are getting worn out, egg production is dropping, and are then only commercially suitable for making chicken soup, pet food, compost fertilizer, or similar fates such as defrauding Canadian consumers.

Fraudulent spent fowl imports are being used to escape paying the 285% import tariffs for broiler chicken at the Canadian border.

Source: http://chickenfarmers.ca/upload/Documents/Spent_Fowl_Imports_webBooklet.pdf

If the current trend of fraudulent spent fowl imports continues, these imports are forecast to double again from the current 16.9% of the domestic broiler production, to 33.76% in just 5.3 years from now, and will reach 50% of Canada's domestic broiler production in just 7 years from now, and 100% of domestic chicken production on or before June 18, 2023 (9.68 years from today).

The data shows a double exponential rate of increase (ie. an exponential of an exponential rate of growth), with a correlation coefficient of 90.48% (ie. the double exponential equation explains 90.48% of the year-to-year variation in the data, with just 9.52% random error).

That means that Canada's entire domestic chicken industry will be wiped out as of 2023, as all the needed chicken will be fraudulently imported into Canada, right under the noses of Chicken Farmers of Canada ("CFC"), the organization who is supposed to be in charge of chicken for all of Canada .

Of course, the Canadian industry for growing and processing chicken, and the growing of grains and making chicken feed for those domestic chickens will likely collapse long before those doomsday dates are reached, due to massive loss of both market share and cash flow.

Note that this dangerous trend is likely created by cannibalism from within the Chicken Mafia (ie. all those who support, use, and benefit from the monopolistic chicken supply management system).  Pure greed likely means that some members of the Chicken Mafia aren't satisfied with a mere 300% markup on chicken in Canada that consumers are forced to pay.  The Chicken Mafia wants more and more profits.  It is likely more than one Chicken Mafia members who are eating Canada's chicken supply management system alive from the inside out, just like in the movie Alien.

Alien monster emerging from inside Astronaut Kane (played by John Hurt) in the 1979 move "Alien"


If something isn't done soon, Canada's entire value-added chicken industry will suffer a similar fate to that of Astronaut Kane, as shown in the above video clip; a sudden, scary, violent, painful, and gruesome death.

Will CFC attack its own members of the Chicken Mafia, so as to save the overall system?  So far, CFC has allowed it to continue.

While Small Flockers don't like the tyranny and oppression of the current chicken supply management system, and we call for dramatic changes, this current crisis isn't our doing, is not what we had in mind, and we do not support letting the current crisis trend to continue.

Somebody needs to do something, and quick.  Perhaps the decades of oppression by the Chicken Mafia has found an outlet, and it is already too late to make amends.

Unfortunately, CFC now wrings their hands in worry and makes pretty brochures about the crisis they created by delay and indifference.

The above graph is taken from a CFC brochure they published as of Sept. 16, 2013.  In a previous Blog posting, I showed how this emerging crisis was detectable back in 2003, but CFC was asleep at the switch, and only realized the trend existed in 2010; which is 7 years behind the times.

Google Internet Search terms for Canada (see graph above) show no interest whatsoever in this topic between 2004 and today.  Shocking and sad!

So that's it? For ten years the problem is allowed to fester, and all CFC can do is produce a 6 page pamphlet on this crisis; a crisis that can and will destroy the entire Canadian chicken industry?

Rip Van Winkle wasn't asleep that long.  Incompetence and negligence by CFC needs to be investigated on this issue.

Perhaps CFC should be taking specific action.  If they don't know what to do, perhaps they should ask somebody who does know.  It appears that all they have done is complain to Minister Ritz, then sit back and wait for a solution from the government.

I find CFC's inaction or glacial pace to be hard to understand.  Talk about fiddling while Rome burns!

You should also be aware of the increasing danger in the Canadian system for supply management of chicken from other sources.  It appears to be approaching the breaking point in multiple area, from stressor originating from multiple sources (see http://canadiansmallflockers.blogspot.com/2013/10/quota-based-chicken-farmer-speaks-out.html )

Today, when a truck of chicken arrives at the US-Canada border, Canadian Border Services Agency ("CBSA") cannot take action on a truck that contains 51% spent chicken that is mixed in with 49% broilers unless they have a scientifically sound, objective method for determining what is a spent fowl and what is a plump young broiler.  I suggest the following 5 step action plan can be in place within 6 months or less if we get somebody competent on the job (ie. not Chicken Farmers of Canada):

1. Secretly purchase a truckload of 100% verified and certified USA spent chicken , and a truckload of verified and certified USA broilers ( in parts, whole fresh, and frozen).  Statistical analysis of the meat is done to characterize it, and identify the factor(s) that provide the maximum confidence interval for differentiating between spent fowl and plump broilers (eg. weight, density, conductivity, skin/meat durometer, pH, water activity, etc.).  I guess that the weight differential should be adequate, but the other data can act as an insurance policy.
   
2. Repeat the purchase and testing from different suppliers and different processing plants so as to build a sufficient database.
3. The database and testing method is verified for repeatability, reproducibility, precision, accuracy, and predictability through a double blind test of the draft method, data is statistically analyzed for prediction efficiency.
   
4. CBSA personnel are trained on the certified testing method.  Method is implemented at all borders.
5. Random samples are taken by CBSA for all trucks of alleged spent chicken imports into Canada.  Based on these samples, the % spent chicken in the shipment is estimated, and CBSA applies the TRQ or other tariff to the balance of the shipment.  If the importer is able to present sufficient objective evidence to prove a different % spent is in the shipment, then this other data will be considered by CBSA prior to assessing the duty owed.
   

Why Change Now?

As recently posted, OFPMC has cut the throat of CFO and the Chicken Monopoly by reducing the FCR by 16.3%.

This is obviously a very significant change.

Why make this change?

Why do it now?

One reader of this Blog, Jim Rohman suggests:

"...reform of marketing boards will come only if and when they are in dire straits with no choice."

Winston Churchill (or Israeli Diplomat A. Eban, depending on the source cited) once said:

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else."

Perhaps these wayward bureaucracies operate on the same principles referred to in the above famous quotation.

I think there are overwhelming piles of anecdotal evidence to support the theory that bureaucracies will only make painful changes when they have no other choice.

If that is so, then why quit the stonewalling?  Why admit that the FCR was way out of whack?  Why did OFPMC force a significant change at this time?

CFO says it was Association of Ontario Chicken Processors (AOCP) who complained.  Note that neither this Blog nor any of the greatest critics of the Chicken Mafia were given the nod by CFO as causing or contributing to this significant change.

CFO would have you believe that the chicken industry is healing itself.  CFO wants everybody to believe that a small bookkeeping error in the FCR inadvertently occurred a long time ago.  CFO also wants us to believe that sharp-eyed chicken industry insiders found this miniscule slip, and promptly got it corrected.

Unfortunately, the facts don't fit CFO's rationalization and cover story.

The FCR "error" has existed for more than 10 years.  There have been legions of people squawking about CFO's phony FCR for a very long time.  I and this Blog have joined the chorus just since Feb. 2013, making even more noise about this evil FCR.

Somebody at CFO had to propose that phony FCR ten years ago, justifying it to both the chicken processors and the government oversight regulators.  Was this phony FCR true at any time in the 10 years it was in effect? 

How did CFO slip these fraudulent assumptions past everybody back then?

How did CFO keep that lie alive and well all this time?

Perhaps there is a true criminal mastermind lurking in the shadow, within CFO, or using CFO as a facade behind which they can hide as they plot and scheme against Canadians.

To think that they would go to such lengths for just a few billion dollars of reward.

So why not continue to stonewall?

If CFO says AOCP generated the complaint that initiated the change, can we believe them?  Does AOCP have enough clout with OFPMC or the Ontario government; enough lobbying and arm twisting behind the scenes that OFPMC was forced to act at this time?

After all, AOCP is an industry group of dozens of corporations, each of which has millions to billions of dollars sales each year, and owned by billionaires.  Who would think that they would have any influence on the powers that be?

 I can't wait to find out how this chicken soap opera finally ends.

Soybean Price vs. Chicken Feed Price

Why is chicken feed price inflation

I talked about soybean prices, and compared then to live chicken farm gate prices in Canada and USA here.

I talked about Canadian feed industry and the growing concentration and market shares here, the major players in that feed market, and the price gouging they are imposing on Canadians disclosed here.

I showed here that there appears to be a chicken feed price conspiracy, where chicken feed has gone up 60% between 2002 and 2012, while cat & dog food has only gone up by 20% in the same time period, even though they use similar ingredients.

Soybean meal (48% protein) is one of the primary ingredients in all of these feeds.  Here is data from AAFC (Agriculture & Agri-Foods Canada) on Canadian soybean meal prices taken from advertised bulk prices.

We can see some market fluctuations, as occur naturally in a competitive market with supply & demand and new/old crop competition.  For the period between 1993 and 2013 (Year-to-Date), we have an average price increase of 1.99%/yr.

From 2002 to 2013, Canadian chicken feed prices rose 4.37%/yr on average.  Chicken feed increased at 219.6% higher than the major feed ingredient; soybean meal.

I wonder why?

Perhaps all of this can be easily explained by huge pay increases for the feed mill staff.  Assuming that soybean meal is the main variable cost which is 60% of the total cost, and fix costs are 10% of the total cost which is inflated at Cost of Living of 3%/yr on average, and employee wages are 30% of the total cost to make chicken feed, then annual raises of 9.59%/yr for feed mill employees who make chicken feed would explain this discrepancy.

If someone who works in a Canadian feed mill that makes chicken feed can contact us to confirm if they have been receiving 9.59%/yr pay raises, it would be most appreciated.

If the above theory of massive, continuous pay raises in chicken feed industry is all wet, then we can only explain this discrepancy as a conspiracy to defraud the Canadian public.

In that case, this latest data appears to be collaboration of my previous post that there is a dirty conspiracy going on upstream, within, and downstream of the Canadian chicken Supply Management system.

Assuming no massive pay raises, this fraud perpetrated on the Canadian public is costing Canadian consumers Billions of dollars every year. It is also weakening our entire Canadian economy.

What we need now, more than ever before in the history of Canada, is a strong, stable economy.

If the government chooses to be willfully blind and paralyzed to this fraud on hard working Canadians, then I suggest that the government is an accessory after the fact to this criminal chronic fraud for aiding and abetting the fraud,  The government is therefore a co-conspirator with all those who are directly involved in the fraud.

Are there any Crown Attorneys, Ministers, government bureaucrats, police, or citizens who are brave enough, frustrated enough, and intrigued enough to investigate further?

Is there anybody out there who is willing to help stop the carnage, and start the healing process?  

Magical Trucks of Chicken

Since starting this Blog 18 days ago, I've been receiving a number of interesting phone calls and emails.  Most of the people who called wanted to remain anonymous, and once they explained the purpose of contacting me, I understood the reason for the secrecy.

They were intrigued with all that I wrote so far on the Blog, but wondered when I was going to get down to the real juicy stuff.

"What might that be", I asked.

"The magical chicken trucks", they said.

I was confused, so I asked them to explain.

They said that they used to work in one of the slaughter plants.  Every once and a while, they would load a truck with eviscerated chickens that was supposed to be exported from Canada, but it never crossed the US-Canadian border.  It went somewhere else.  Nobody on the plant floor knew where it went, except that it didn't go export like it was supposed to.

"It was a magical chicken truck", they repeated.

After asking some more questions, my light bulb finally went on.  You see, eviscerated chicken all looks the same, it's not traceable except by the paper that accompanies the chicken.  One truckload of chicken looks the same as the next; they're indistinguishable.

It appears that live chicken had been imported from the US for Canadian processing, and they were supposed to be re-exported as eviscerated chicken meat to some foreign country.  However, those chickens never left Canada.  By claiming to import for subsequent re-exporting, the processor escapes paying the 300% import tariff.  When the magical chicken truck is used, the chicken appears to leave Canada (but don't), and then the processor was free to sell the resulting meat in Canada at 3 times the selling price available in export markets.  Not a bad profit margin, if you can get away with it.

After all, it's easy for a magician to make a magical chicken truck disappear here and re-appear over there.   

Another person contacted me to say that they drove long haul reefer truck, often for chicken slaughter plants exporting to the States.  Sometimes they would have a load that they took to the States that would have some paper problems.  It appears that 2 or more slaughter plants were claiming the same truck as their own shipment, so that it would go towards their export quota license.

You get awarded quota for export, then claim that you exported as you were supposed to do (but never really export those chickens).  You then have an extra truckload of chicken in Canada that you can sell in the high priced Canadian chicken market.  That sounds like a nice way to make some quick cash, provided you can get away with it.

I understand that both Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO) and Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC) are supposed to be monitoring the chicken supply management system, and ensuring that the rules are followed by everybody.

Whatever you do, make sure you don't wake up CFO or CFC to tell them about the magical chicken trucks.  They're trying to sleep.

Credibility Trap

Jesse wrote the following about the 2008 financial collapse and its causes.

When I re-read it, I found it interesting that it may apply quite well to Canada's Supply Management systems.

See what you think:

"A credibility trap is a condition wherein the financial, political and informational functions of a society have been compromised by corruption and fraud, so that the leadership cannot effectively reform, or even honestly address, the problems of that system without impairing and implicating, at least incidentally, a broad swath of the power structure, including themselves.

The status quo tolerates the corruption and the fraud because they have profited at least indirectly from it, and would like to continue to do so. Even the impulse to reform within the power structure is susceptible to various forms of soft blackmail and coercion by the system that maintains and rewards.

And so a failed policy and its support system become self-sustaining, long after it is seen by objective observers to have failed. In its failure it is counterproductive, and an impediment to recovery in the real economy. Admitting failure is not an option for the thought leaders who receive their power from that system.

The continuity of the structural hierarchy must therefore be maintained at all costs, even to the point of becoming a painfully obvious, organized hypocrisy.

Jesse, Jesse's Cafe Americain