Consumers are always going to be faced with the “one potato, two potato” dilemma.

One potato — produced  by BC farmers using sustainable farm management practices on high cost land under stringent environmental regulations and paying fair wages — puts many benefits on society’s plate beyond the simple potato.

The other — produced on a 1000 acre spud farm with more chemicals and less environmental regulations paying migrant wages and transported 500 miles to market – is clearly the more expensive choice when all factors are considered.

But the consumer doesn’t see it that way.  It is the role of public policy to devise another way to pay the farmer producing the “sustainable” potato for all the other goodies he/she puts on society’s plate.  If not, the farmer, like Canada’s sovereignty over our water resources, will be gone in a blink.

Why supply management is such a brilliant policy tool for some sectors (milk, chicken, turky, eggs and hatching eggs).   And why other farm sectors without the support of supply management can struggle in the absence of solid policy support.  A country whose farmers are struggling never ends well for the consumer.

Ask your elected representatives to tell you what they are doing to support Canada’s farmers today and in upcoming trade talks.

Above excerpted from my 1998 Column in Country Life in BC:   Jun 1998 – One potato, two potatoes: the new ag economics.