Glenn Black of
Providence Bay, a remote community on Manitoulin Island, has been blogging
exposés that are highly
critical of, and embarrassing for, the chicken and egg marketing boards.
He’s lobbying to
gain the right for small-flock owners to keep up to 2,000 birds without requiring
marketing board quota. The chicken-industry limit now is 300 per year.
Hiltz wants to
keep 700 laying hens on an outdoors diet of insects and seeds they can scrounge
from pasture.
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| Health Minister Leo Glavine |
Black has written
a long open letter to Nova Scotia Health Minister Leo Glavine, outlining the
merits of eggs, of small-scale local food production and the dietary problems
that arise from depending on the products made and sold by giant food
companies.
“I think it is
paramount for the Nova Scotia government to find some way to convince,
encourage, or force the Nova Scotia branch of the Egg Mafia to consult and
accommodate him (Hiltz) in some reasonable manner (and all other small flockers
of a similar nature) in their current egg supply management system.
“Similarly, we must
permit small flock chicken farmers, and other local food endeavors to thrive in
spite of the entrenched Big Food monopolists, and the swarming of their
lobbyists in the back halls and offices of government” Black has written to
Glavine.
“As Health
Minister of Nova Scotia, I assume you know that we have a world-wide health
crisis, and Canada is included in that crisis. There are now more obese
people in the world than the under-nourished. In Nova Scotia, health care
eats up $4.5 billion of the province’s $9.5 billion annual budget; a whopping
47 per cent of the 2013 provincial budget.
“Many studies now
indicate that up to 75 per cent of human disease is caused or contributed to by
poor nutrition, which includes poor eating habits.
“Unfortunately,
this can't be simply solved by ‘eating healthy’. For example, 100 years
ago the potato was a rich source of Vitamin A and C, and many trace
nutrients.
“Not today, as
the typical potato has lost almost all of its Vitamin A, lost 47 per cent of
their copper, lost 45 per cent of their iron and lost 35 per cent of their
calcium.
“It isn't just
the potato that has suffered this terrible fate. Many fruits, vegetables,
grains, meats, and other foods are becoming more and more depleted.
“For chicken,
there is now more fat, and the fat Omega-3 to Omega-6 ratio has totally flipped
to the unhealthy side in the last 50 years (Ref: BANT).
“Nutritionists often
say that chicken eggs are ‘Nature's Vitamin Pill’, for they are packed with
naturally occurring goodness.
“Unfortunately,
we now have documented evidence from Canadian Food Inspection Agency
("CFIA") and other sources that show psychotic members of Big Food's
Egg Mafia knowingly put cracked, dirty, under-sized, and expired eggs into
cartons for retail sale; allegedly to gain millions of dollars of extra
profit. “
Black says supply
management was introduced to help farmers, but has been subverted and now “Health
Canada studies show that on average, 7.8 per cent of Canadian families can't
afford the food they need to feed their families; it’s as high as 28 per cent
in Nunavut.
“If they can't
afford the food they want and need, they are forced to buy what they can afford,
which means even lower quality food. This has a direct causal link to
their subsequent poor health, and the extra health care services you are
subsequently required to provide, and the extra bills taxpayers eventually
face,” he writes to Glavine.
For example,
Canada is currently in last place (7th out of seven) of the OECD nations for
chicken exports, a mere 1.4 per cent market share of this billion-dollar export
market. If we changed Supply Management, we could slowly improve, catch
up with the rest of the world, and eventually provide up to 50 per cent of the
OECD market.
“At that level,
Canada would have to produce five times more chicken than what we do
today.
“That would be
Billions in additional GDP for Canada, and thousands more of good permanent
jobs, reducing your Nova Scotia unemployment rate, as well as Canada's
overall. We can't do that today because Canada's Chicken Mafia is content
with the continued raping and plundering of innocent Canadians,” Black writes.
“Since your
predecessor and neighbouring politicians created this Frankenstein monster that
repeatedly attacks Canadian consumers, I believe it is the politicians who are
responsible to rein in this out of control Big Food monster. Since it is
better to start with the root cause rather than the symptom, that is why
something needs to be immediately done, first and foremost, about the Supply
Management wing of Big Food, as this is the worst of the worst.
“As you have the
Health portfolio, which isn't responsible for agriculture, you will have to
convince and enjoin your cabinet colleagues to act in unison with you on this
important issue.
“If you or your cabinet
colleagues ignore, doubt and fail to verify, delay, lose your perseverance, or
forget about this issue, then thousands of people (some of them your
constituents), will suffer the cruel consequences,” Black writes before
concluding with his plea on behalf of Hiltz.
