The decision by the Farm Products Marketing Tribunal to allow Georgian Bay Milk to export non quota milk is a victory for no one in the long run, except large processors.

A Financial Post article quotes Saputo Inc., the largest milk processors in Canada, as saying it would build plants outside Canada if non quota milk were eliminated. The threat echoes the good old days, more than four decades ago, and the return to cheap milk.

Over 36 years, boards have provided a level of prosperity in Ontario that did not previously exist. Before then, stories of poor prices and poor treatment had become legendary. They’ve been replaced by the complaints of the processing industry every time there is an increase to producers.

Without the board, we believe the price of milk would still go up. But not for farmers. A month after the borders were closed for BSE, Albertans were losing $700 per head on a beef animal. The supermarkets were still selling steak for $22.50 per kilogram.

Large food companies in Canada don’t do farmers favours. They sometimes run them into poverty. They run them into poverty because they suck away all the profits, and they want all the profits. So far, marketing boards shield their farmers from being a cheap, exploited work force. The United States Farm Bill does the same thing.

In huge companies, salaries don’t depend on efficiency or profits, according to Canadian Business Magazine. Salaries like market clout depend on control. Galen Weston, who heads George Weston Ltd., and whose wife was Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, made about $29 million after everything was included. Among other things, he owns Loblaws and vacations with Jean Chretien. The company share price dropped 21 per cent.

Pretty well everyone in our society making higher wages and profits is working for a monopoly or has an arrangement to protect its profession. The argument is old but true. Doctors have their association and control entry, for example, as do teachers.

So where will producers get their protection? Canada has not put agriculture on its list of priorities. The federal government has no vision and hasn’t had one since the 70s. In 1992, trade negotiators failed farmers at World Trade Organization talks. It got tariff protection but failed to see that loop holes would allow dairy products into the country at unprecedented rates.

Maybe the biggest question now is how will export milk be segregated from domestic milk. Can it be done? and will processors be in violation of the world trade agreement?