U.S. and Canadian Food and Agricultural Policies: Goals and Objectives, Conflict and Cooperation

Abstract

A similar set of economic, physical, and political factors have forged similar goals for U.S. and Canadian agricultural policy. This article will address those policy goals and compare the conflicts and consistencies between them and the approaches the United States and Canada have taken in their handling of domestic and international affairs in order to realize those goals. Within the last decade, both the United States and Canada have witnessed a turbulent series of agricultural events-extreme variance in world agricultural production, wildly fluctuating prices, the entrance of the Soviet Union and other countries into the world market, an increased awareness of the consumer, rising food prices, and overall inflation. To cope with these events, both the United States and Canada developed agricultural policy goals covering four broad areas. Very similar in their nature, the goals are: to provide a fair return to producers, bring supplies in line with demand, avoid extreme fluctuations in prices, maintain long-term benefits to producers, and encourage orderly marketing; to provide an adequate and dependable food supply that will ensure high quality, nutritious foods at reasonable prices; to liberalize trade, expand exports, and provide technical assistance and food aid to developing countries; and to improve the quality of life by caring for natural resources, supporting extension activities, and sponsoring research. While the policy goals of the United States and Canada are similar, the agricultural systems the two countries have developed are different. Both have free market systems; but in its producer-oriented programs, Canada has relied more heavily on government management of food and agricultural markets to reduce instabilities. Canadian policy tools include price, income, and production stabilization programs for livestock and crops, including income and price supports, deficiency payments as profit stabilization measures, marketing boards and quotas, administered prices, and import controls. Founded on the belief that the general public must share with farmers the burdens of risk in agricultural production, the dominant theme for Canadian agricultural policy has been increased public commitment to the enhancement of stability in farming. Canada's crop insurance program is an example of that theme because farmer premiums are subsidized in large part by tax revenues. Canadian policy encourages increased prouctivity and efficient marketing to reduce the per-unit costs of production, even to the extent of providing freight assistance to produc-