Friday, November 1, 2013

Black writes to N.S. health minister


 Aaron Hiltz, the Kings County farmer challenging the Nova Scotia egg marketing board, is getting some lobbying support from an outspoken small-flock producer in Ontario.

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.

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.