The saga of tensions between the British Columbia Egg Marketing Board and tiny egg grader Mountain Morning Farms at Salmon Arm gets ever more curious.
Owner Miles Materi recently gained the right to get information held by the FIRB (the BC Farm Industry Review Board) so he can see how it's supervising the egg board and indications that less-than-wholesome eggs are sometimes making it to market.
Within days, the B.C. Egg Marketing Board served Materi with an injunction to stop him from grading any eggs.
Surprise! Surprise! Rattle these guys cages and they seem to slam back.
The board wants the injunction because it says Materi has no licence to operate as a grading station.
But Materi has a federal licence and is under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency which has rated his facility AAA.
So the B.C. egg board wants to deny consumers eggs from the province's highest-ranked grading station? It stretches credulity to think this is a matter of the egg board protecting the public. Materi thinks it's pure and simple retaliation.
But why is the egg board so exercised about Materi's egg grading operation?
Materi thinks it's because he dares to compete with the dominant egg-grading busienss in the province, Golden Valley.
Coincidentally - or perhaps not so coincidentally - L.H. Gray and Son Ltd. is a major shareholder in Golden Valley. And L.H. Gray and Son Ltd. is fighting a $33-million lawsuit filed by Svante Lind who says his Best Choice egg-grading business was targeted by Gray and that Burnbrae Farms Ltd. and the Ontario egg board formed a conspiracy against him.
The allegations have yet to be tested in court. Lawyers are still sparring over the preliminaries and the crucial issue of how much information in electronic records taken from Gray can be admitted in the court case.
The British Columbia events bear a striking similarity to the allegations outlined in
Lind's lawsuit.
In September, I wrote about a surprise visit by an inspector for the British Columbia Egg Marketing Board to Materi's barn.
Within days, the B.C. Egg Marketing Board served Materi with an injunction to stop him from grading any eggs.
Surprise! Surprise! Rattle these guys cages and they seem to slam back.
The board wants the injunction because it says Materi has no licence to operate as a grading station.
But Materi has a federal licence and is under the Canadian Food Inspection Agency which has rated his facility AAA.
So the B.C. egg board wants to deny consumers eggs from the province's highest-ranked grading station? It stretches credulity to think this is a matter of the egg board protecting the public. Materi thinks it's pure and simple retaliation.
But why is the egg board so exercised about Materi's egg grading operation?
Materi thinks it's because he dares to compete with the dominant egg-grading busienss in the province, Golden Valley.
Coincidentally - or perhaps not so coincidentally - L.H. Gray and Son Ltd. is a major shareholder in Golden Valley. And L.H. Gray and Son Ltd. is fighting a $33-million lawsuit filed by Svante Lind who says his Best Choice egg-grading business was targeted by Gray and that Burnbrae Farms Ltd. and the Ontario egg board formed a conspiracy against him.
The allegations have yet to be tested in court. Lawyers are still sparring over the preliminaries and the crucial issue of how much information in electronic records taken from Gray can be admitted in the court case.
The British Columbia events bear a striking similarity to the allegations outlined in
Lind's lawsuit.
In September, I wrote about a surprise visit by an inspector for the British Columbia Egg Marketing Board to Materi's barn.
Now it turns out that this fellow, who entered the barn without following any biosecurity protocols, dressed in his street clothes and failing to disinfect his shoes, is in charge of biosecurity for the egg board. Hmmm. Leading by example, I presume.
And Miles says that after checking court records, he believes the board lacked proper authority to exercise that search warrant.
In September I reported that the inspector was accompanied by a disgruntled RCMP officer “who really didn’t want to be there” to help gain entry to the barn.
Miles said the inspector took a few pictures on his cell phone and left.
And where, pray tell, are our politicians who stand foursquare behind supply management marketing boards?
And where, pray tell, are our politicians who stand foursquare behind supply management marketing boards?
They seem blithely content to allow abuses to continue, perhaps hoping that the boards will crash and burn. If I were an egg farmer in either B.C. or Ontario, I would be demanding inquiries in the hopes that the industry could be put on a sound and honest footing.
