A dairy farmer in Southern Ontario went viral after speaking out against Canada's supply management system, which regularly forces him to dump thousands of litres of fresh milk if he goes over the quota.."Look at this milk running away because it's the end of the month. I dump 30,000 litres of milk. It breaks my heart," Dunville, ON farmer Jerry Huigen said in a TikTok video that's been viewed more than 150,000 times.."We have no say anymore as a dairy farmer on our own farm, because they make us dump it, and no matter how we stand up. So this time, I’m going public.". Dumping milkDumping milk .Because of Canada's supply management system — which controls the supply of dairy, poultry and eggs through production and import controls and pricing mechanisms — dairy farmers are only paid for the milk they produce within those quotas..Every month, the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) decides exactly how much milk will be produced in Canada across its 10,000 dairy farms. If a farmer produces more milk than their monthly quota allows, then they will not be compensated for the extra milk..Huigen, who grew up on a dairy farm in Europe, said his business is "not even growing by 10%" due to the quota system..“You tell me, if you’re in the pig business, the wood industry, any steel industry, if you’re 10% over and times are good … your little bit of profit goes down the drain,” he said..Huigen also decried high milk prices that result from the supply management system. Even though quotas prevent dairy from seeing the same price fluctuations as other products, the CDC hiked milk prices by more than 11% over the last year.."How dare you guys put this [milk] on the market $7 per litre and think that that's OK, when there are single mothers with no extra income, or children at the Sick Kids Hospital that could use this."."By the way, Canada is the only country in the world that does this, not the United States or Europe, where they don't dump thousands of litres when they're over. But we're not supposed to talk about this," he said..Huigen said he hopes the CDC will look into the quota system, which is harming dairy farmers, as well as ordinary Canadians at the grocery store.."So Justin Trudeau and [Doug] Ford, I'd love to take you for dinner," he said..On Twitter, Leader of the People's Party of Canada Maxime Bernier said they are the "only party that proposes to abolish this costly and wasteful supply management system, while compensating farmers for the lost value of quotas."."All the other parties are in the pocket of the dairy mafia," he said.
