Help the economy by fighting for northern chicken: Eat Local

Northern Ontario farmers sent the message that they want a larger stake in the chicken industry during provincial consultations on the future of the sector earlier this month.

The Chicken Farmers of Ontario recently announced they would be holding stakeholder consultations across Ontario to discuss the allocation of new growth in the chicken industry – but no consultations were planned in Northern Ontario.

This prompted Eat Local Sudbury to spearhead a letter requesting that consultations be held in the north. The letter was co-signed by 12 northern farm organizations and eight individual farms, and sent to Premier Kathleen Wynne, Agriculture Minister Jeff Leal and the Chicken Farmers of Ontario.

Eat Local Sudbury launched the We Want Northern Chicken Campaign in 2013 to raise awareness about the lack of chicken production in northern Ontario and to seek change.

More than 1,500 postcards were mailed by Northern Ontario residents to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs asking for a change in the supply management system to enable a viable chicken industry in Northern Ontario.

Consultations with farmers, processors and other stakeholders are being held across the province because, as of this month, Ontario will be awarded the right to produce an extra 72.3 million live kilograms of chicken to meet market demand – the largest allocation ever given to this province.

Consultations were held in Fort Frances, Dryden, Thunder Bay, Gore Bay, Sault Ste Marie, New Liskeard and Verner by webinar Feb. 10.

Because the Ontario chicken industry is part of the supply management system, the current process for allocating this new growth would be to divvy up the right to produce the extra 72.3 million kilograms of chicken between existing “quota holders,” a press release said.

Quota holders are farmers who have paid for the right to produce chicken in Ontario. Farmers that do not own quota can raise a maximum of 300 chickens per farm per year.

This is an important issue for Northern Ontario – almost all of the chicken eaten in the North is produced elsewhere.

“In 2011, northern Ontario farmers produced less than one per cent of all the chicken purchased in the North,” said Baillie. “This is a big concern for both food security and economic development for the North, which is why Eat Local Sudbury decided to run the We Want Northern Chicken Campaign.”

Many northern farmers would like to raise chicken, but are finding that to be impossible within the current system.

“There is a demand for local, ecologically-raised chicken,” said Allison Muckle, owner of Rowantree Farms in Sudbury.

“It’s difficult for small farmers to meet that need because we have only two choices: to work outside of the quota system and raise a maximum of 300 birds per year, which is too few to run a viable business; or to buy into the system, which would require an investment of over $1 million for the minimum amount of quota allowed. These consultations will be a great opportunity to start talking about change.”

For more information, visit the We Want Northern Chicken campaign page on Facebook or phone Eat Local Sudbury at 705-521-6717.