~ freelance journalist

Dairy and poultry farmers have good reasons to be miffed at the way they’ve been portrayed in the media lately.

First, marketing boards were billed as state sanctioned scrooges by a gaggle of economists and newspaper columnists weighing in on Canada finally being accepted into the Trans-Pacific trade negotiations. Lots of big numbers were flung around about on how much the boards stiff consumers. The only way Canada could ever be accepted in the trade deal is to ditch the boards, they insisted.

The criticism turned to indignation when the government pointed out that Canada wasn’t about to sacrifice the boards. Its position was the same as in the WTO and European free trade negotiations.

Next, marketing boards are to be the victims of the Harper Conservatives ideological crusade against the Canadian Wheat Board.

In the end, a lot of columnists and economists mostly revealed how little they know about agriculture and marketing boards. Farmers of all stripes should be peeved by this ignorance.

The boards aren’t without their warts, especially quota values. And three figure protective tariffs are never going to look good, anyway you cut it.

But let’s restore some sanity to the debate.

On the trade pact, Canada and Mexico were invited to join the negotiations by the United States. On occasions, Washington remembers that a prosperous North America is a benefit for the United States.

Now the only countries with enough of a dairy industry to have any concern about Canada’s supply management system are the U.S., which accepted it through NAFTA, and New Zealand. The reader can probably guess where all the squawking about earlier Canadian participation in the Pacific trade deal comes from. It makes little sense when New Zealand is closer to the faster growing Asian economies. The Kiwis should be glad Canada isn’t a dairy competitor.

The best huffing and puffing about marketing boards was a Postmedia column that was long on indignation and short on facts. The writer was alarmed at the consolidation in the number of dairy farms during the last few decades. I guess he didn’t check the last Ag census to see how the number of farms in every sector has plummeted.

The marketing board question was put to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and his Alberta and Saskatchewan counterparts at a news conference on the day of the final debate in the Commons on the CWB legislation.

The provincial ministers were quick to dismiss the claim. Farmers want out of the CWB monopoly, they don’t want out of the supply management boards, both ministers said. That got some coverage, but not nearly as the marketing board bashing.