Putting Down Roots: Assessing New Entrant Programs for Dairy and Broiler Farmers in Ontario

Abstract

Canadian farmers are aging. This paper argues that supply management, despite various existing new entrant programs, is a significant factor in the ongoing reduction of young people entering the agriculture industry. Rather than eliminate supply management, however, this paper offers a path for reform that would ensure more new entrant farmers while retaining supply management’s supports for producers.

This paper begins with an examination of the economic and legal barriers to entry that are associated with supply management. It then compares and contrasts the
new entrant programs of Ontario’s dairy and broiler industries and outlines their limitations. The paper concludes by arguing that to further encourage new entry, policymakers should change and expand new entry programs to facilitate prospective farmers wishing to operate on leased lands, issue production quota that has fewer characteristics of absolute ownership, and expand new entrant programs to support entrants who implement alternative modes of production.