I would like to say that I agree with Anne Van Dijk’s “Reader Response: Canada restored its markets” in response to “U.S. farmers lose milk markets in Canada.” I would also like to point out a big difference between our two countries.

Here in Canada, if we lose a milk market (which we did over a 10-year period as more and more U.S. product slipped in), we do not send “stop receiving” letters to a few farmers. Instead all farmers receive a quota cut. No one is left scrambling to sell their milk, no one will lose a milk check, or go broke. The fact that 75 American dairy farmers were told that their milk would no longer be accepted is a result of your marketing system in the U.S. Please don’t blame Canada for your system of reducing milk supply.

Also, no one in the U.S. seemed to care about us having to make cut backs due to American ingredients coming into our country. As your article quotes it was “almost a million pounds per day” or $100 million over 10 years. Just because we did not have stories of individual farmers going broke doesn’t mean it did not hurt us on this side of the border.

I wish these issues were easier to solve, after all we are all hard working dairy farmers on both sides of the border and we all love what we do.

— Bill Los, Ontario, Canada