TPP would allow milk from cows receiving hormones into Canada

It's not that producing milk is inherently economically unviable, it's just that it's used as a loss-leader by the supermarkets, and they use their monopsony power to pressure farmers on price.

Describing farming as a "career chose" frames it like it's the sort of thing that might be proposed by employment advisors to inner city schoolkids, but there has never been a time in British history when that would have made sense.

I would imagine that 9/10 British dairy farmers grew up on the farm that they work - obviously, they're an ageing demographic now, because in an era of mass media many of their kids have forsaken farming in favour of the city and a lifestyle which doesn't involve rain and cow shit.

But because farmers have huge sunk costs and this massive economic asset, it's not really as simple as saying "they should switch jobs".

Their farm might, on paper, and based on the area of the land and how much they paid for the milking equipment, be worth £3,000,000, but who the fuck wants to buy a dairy farm when the supermarkets are squeezing their suppliers all the time?

So the typical British dairy farmer is an old boy who's sitting on a massive asset he can't realise, whose costs (as I said) are sunk, and who's now just doing it because he doesn't know anything else. "For the love of his herd", you might say, except that since BSE ("mad cow disease") he's not even allowed to keep his own bull.

It's not really the farmer's loss if he goes out of business - you make it sound spiteful. His farm is still worth, say £2,000,000, even sold cheap, so he'll be retiring better than you are.

But most nations don't like having to depend on imports of food, because it leaves them vulnerable in case of (historically) war, fluctuating exchange rates or other adversity.

This is a big issue for the Philippines, for example, and Senegal, but we tend to care more about domestic production of things like grains and dairy (i.e. the cost to you of cheese sandwiches and beefburgers). That's why we have EEC subsidies for our farmers.

TL;DR, you really should learn more about economics or business before you proffer any more "simple economic solutions". Most people offering simple solutions to things don't know what they're talking about.

/r/worldnews Thread Parent Link - cbc.ca