• HardNut@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    In Canada, regulation is the reason they dump milk. Regulation creates milk quotas that they are not allowed to exceed. Farmers do not benefit from this, they would certainly sell more milk at a lower price if it was allowed.

    • Encrypt-Keeper@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I mean that’s your speculation, however the contrary of your speculation (companies literally dumping extra product so that they DON’T sell it at a lower price) has already happened. So I don’t think your speculation is accurate.

      • HardNut@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s not speculation. It is a fact that Canada’s dairy is sold at a fixed cost, so farmers aren’t even allowed to lower prices to open up market demand among a population that already way over pays for food. The farmers say they dump it because they can’t sell it, and all reporting around the cases say they are dumping it because they can’t sell it. BC and Ontario happen to be where many of the viral milk dumping videos come from, and they happen to be the most heavily regulated provinces. American corporations do something similar in that they make contracts with farmers, so when excess milk is produced, they have to dump it since they aren’t free to market it themselves anymore.

        The problem is clearly market capture, whether its by corporations or the government. There is a clear cause and effect relationship between being told you’re not allowed to sell milk, and dumping milk rather than marketing it. It’s a very straight forward problem we’re seeing.

        Please think about why your hypothesis makes no sense, if I can’t sell milk at $10, but I can sell it at a lower price, would that not be favorable to dumping it? If the problem is greed, would greed not incentivize me to make every cent I can out of that milk?