Researchers say billions of litres of milk in Canada are being discarded, and this is a cause for concern.
A newly published study in the Journal of Ecological Economics examined how much of it Canada’s Dairy Supply Management System (DSMS) has dumped over the past several years.
The purpose of the DSMS is to match milk supply with consumer demand and is meant to be a system that supports farmers.
However, it also results in overproduction, leading farmers across the country to discard excess milk rather than risking underproduction and lost revenue.
The report found that between 2012 and 2021, dairy farms in Canada discarded nearly 6.8 billion litres of milk, which accounts for nearly 7% of total production. Over the past decade, $6.7 billion worth of it has been dumped.
The findings shed light on an ongoing issue with the Canadian dairy industry.
Last year, Jerry Huigen, who operates Huigen Bros Farm in Dunville, said that milk production is high during the winter months, but thousands of litres of it are dumped to maintain Canada’s dairy quota. Huigen claimed that he had discarded 30,000 litres.
He took to TikTok to speak on the matter further, but his video has since been deleted.
Dairy farmers are forced to dump enormous quantities of milk in order to keep prices high.
I’ve been denouncing this for years. It continues because all the establishment parties are afraid of the supply management mafia.pic.twitter.com/gOE0jYRoeR
— Maxime Bernier (@MaximeBernier) February 3, 2023
In a previous report, Daily Hive obtained a copy of the video using The Wayback Machine. Maxime Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada, also shared it on X.
Huigen criticized Canada’s laws for forcing farmers to dump surplus milk, which he believed could go to food banks, hospitals, or needy families.
The many impacts of spilled milk
It’s not just milk and money that are going down the drain; these actions also have a significant environmental impact.
The report found the total carbon emissions from discarded milk between 2012 and 2021 equated to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 350,000 passenger vehicles in North America.
The production of this wasted milk also uses up precious land resources. Researchers noted that up to 920 to 900 km2 of arable land and 930 million to 1.9 billion m3 of surface and groundwater were needed to care for cows and grow their feed.
With food waste and insecurity prominent issues in Canada, the dumped milk could have also provided enough milk for over 4.2 million people annually.
However, the authors also acknowledged that over the past years, there has been a decreasing level of discarded milk, which can be “attributed to a combination of improved farm management practices, advancements in dairy processing technologies, stricter adherence to regulatory standards, and better supply chain coordination.”
Reforms needed
The report determined that reforms to the DSMS are needed to prevent significant dairy waste from continuing.
The first step is to update the Canadian Dairy Commission Act to phase out the legal practice of discarding milk that meets food and safety standards.
The authors recommended increasing monitoring and publishing the estimates on discarded milk to increase transparency.
“Publishing surplus milk statistics based on head of productive cattle (as in our analysis) would provide motivation for the industry to reduce herd size and transition towards alternatives such as plant-based dairy,” stated the researchers.
They added that dairy quotas should be revised and overproduction should be met with penalties.
Daily Hive has reached out to the Dairy Farmers of Canada for further comment on the report’s findings.
With files from Imaan Sheikh