The Rural Voice, 2005-08, Page 21nt
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Food safety has taken a step
further in Ontario with the
introduction of Hazard Analysis,
Critical Control Point (HACCP)
systems on egg farms. The
Mclntoshes were one of the first
group of 20 farms in Ontario to
qualify for HACCP certification,
back in 2000. They already met most
of the requirements to qualify. Today
close to 75 per cent of Ontario hens
are housed in HACCP-approved
facilities.
The tracebauk system is so
advanced that in Ontario the
technology is available to imprint a
code on every egg that would allow
tracing of the egg back to the day it
was laid on a specific farm.
One of the changes brought
about by HACCP has been a
tightening of bio -security on
Ontario egg -producing farms, a
restriction that has gotten even more
stringent with the outbreaks of avian
influenza in British Columbia. The
industry still isn't back to normal out
there, McIntosh says, because it's not
easy to pick up the pieces after such a
disaster. For one thing you don't
want all the barns filled with birds of
the same age.
The criticism that even supporters
of supply management often level at
the industry is the high cost of quota.
McIntosh admits the price of egg
quota has moved far past the level he
thought was the upper limit. but at the
same time he points out that from
franchise fees to dealerships, other
business sectors also have costs to
enter an enterprise.
Despite the commonly -expressed
concern that young people can't
afford to get into a supply -managed
commodity, if you go to a meeting of
egg producers in Huron, Lambton or
Middlesex counties you see a lot
more young faces than at most farm
meetings, McIntosh says. "It comes
back to being able to plan ahead," he
says. "Young farmers can put a plan
together and take it to a financial
institution. You can be sure of
constant prices."
The influx of young people,
however, means there are many
producers in the industry who don't
know what it was like working in an
industry that didn't have control of
its prices, McIntosh says. "It's a
democratic industry. We have
producer control." 0
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