Enjoy a healthy serving of milk

Dear Editor:

“We Pay Too Much For Milk” (Feb.2) Let’s do our homework :

1. We have a logic based marketing system known as Supply Management. It means just that: S-U-P-P-L-Y management, ensuring that we produce only what there is a requirement for. We have milk quotas so the sector does not overproduce and dump excess on the market or in the sewer.

2. Prices are set according to a formula taking into account cost of production.

3. Canadian dairy farms are stringently inspected and milk tested daily . Some consumers may not be aware that in the U.S. dairy cows are injected with hormone bovine somatotropin (BST) manufactured by Monsanto. It is used to artificially increase milk production by 11-16%. Cows receiving the hormone have a 25% increase in mastitis, an 18% increase in infertility and a 50% increase in lameness. It was banned in Canada when research also showed it increased the potential for breast cancer in women.

4. If this is acceptable to you, you will be happy to know that under the USMCA agreement our borders are now open to more U.S. dairy products, which notably are not sold more cheaply by our grocery corporations.

5. You might also want to consider Mad Cow Disease (Creutzfeldt Jakob disease in humans), human fatality as recently as 2016 in the UK, and still has been detected in more than 120,000 cattle, there.

6. Until you have worked 24 hours a day every day, been obstetrician, milking tech, pedigree analyst, dietitian, AI tech, veterinarian, mechanic, and accountant, as is each dairy farmer, do not complain about the price of milk in Canada.

Just enjoy a healthy serving of Canadian milk and cheese

Elaine Lawrence Kelowna