Supply management as food sovereignty

Abstract

Against all odds, and an ongoing neoliberal barrage of criticism, Canada has maintained support for agricultural supply management programs instituted in the 1960s and 70s. The supply management organizations-and many academics- see supply management as one means by which to achieve food sovereignty, given the programmatic emphasis on the protection of family farms and restriction of unnecessary imports. However, to achieve this, supply management systems must balance a tendency for exclusion with the needs of small-scale, diversified producers. This chapter provides an assessment of one attempt to address this balance in Ontario, Canada, where small-flock chicken farmers looking to supply the new local food market ran up against the limits of the supply management system. Province-wide research with local food initiatives and consultations with our multi-stakeholder advisory groups determined that transformation of the supply management program was worth pursuing. In order to challenge potential policy solutions, I sought a series of frank, candid conversations with those intimately involved with the issues, from leaders of farm organizations and NGOs pushing for increased small-flock exemptions, to spokespersons for supply management organizations- as well as current and former provincial regulators. What follows is a brief history of the intersection of food sovereignty and supply management, a discussion of the challenges and potential policy solutions to integrate the two concepts in practice, and an analysis of the new Artisanal Chicken policy that has been developed in response-and which may offer a sustainable model to which other jurisdictions could aspire.