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Agriculture

Viewpoint on the world food crisis

Long term growth in the world economy should see a continuation in the rising demand for food products. The recent food spikes have been caused primarily by a series of shorter term shocks and poor policy measures that have seen some economies benefit (Canada for example) and others suffer tremendously. The critical question is: what can be done to improve the situation?

Supply management of farm products: A costly system for consumers

Despite a worldwide trend toward market liberalization and competition, most politicians and people involved in Quebec agriculture maintain a vigorous defence of supply management of certain farm products. Supply management is the mechanism by which milk, poultry and egg producers in Canada (most of them located in Quebec and Ontario) adjust production to protect their incomes. To this end, domestic demand is evaluated arbitrarily, and efforts are made to match this with production of the goods covered by the scheme.

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