It all started with a innocent question on Twitter: Was butter in Canada becoming more difficult to spread?
“My butter looked harder. It was during a very hot period and I realized that I was not behaving well, ”said Sylvain Charlebois, professor of food distribution and politics at Dalhousie University who posted the tweet. “But I thought I was the only one who was going through this.”
He quickly learned that he was not alone.
Julie Van Rosendaal, author of a cookbook, was one of many others who posted to describe a mysterious transformation in the pantry’s staple food. “Something is going on with our butter supply,” she wrote.
The growing suspicion that the culprit could be palm oil extracts has sparked an outcry across the country and, as issues escalate, the case has revived long-standing complaints about the country’s powerful dairy industry – and accusations that its policies overburden Canadians with higher costs to protect farmers.
“Butter is probably two or three times more expensive in Canada than in the United States. And as Canadians, we implicitly agree with that, ”Charlebois. “But we also expect quality. So, whatever is causing the toughest butter, people are really wondering what’s going on here. And they are questioning the lack of transparency in the dairy industry. “
For years, Canada has strictly controlled milk, butter and cheese production through supply management – a complex system of production controls and tariffs designed to discourage foreign imports and keep domestic prices stable.
Under the system, farmers receive the same amount of money each month for their products.
During trade negotiations with the U.S., Donald Trump fulminated the system and unsuccessfully asked Canada to dismantle its long-standing protectionist measures.
Charlebois believes that the system is largely responsible for the current dispute over the quality of butter.
“Regardless of the quality of your product, regardless of what happens on your farm, you receive the same amount of money. Because of this, producers in Canada are probably the best cost managers in the world when it comes to dairy products, ”said Charlebois. “How do you actually generate more fat while keeping costs as low as possible? Well, palmitic acids are a very convenient solution. “
Palm oil extracts have long been used in the dairy industry to increase milk production and milk fat content. Charlebois and other experts suspect that the growing demand for butter – exacerbated by the pandemic – has prompted more producers to adopt the practice.
There is still no clear explanation as to why Canadians are noticing a change in their butter, but Charlebois points to an October report from British Columbia’s dairy marketing council, which raised concerns about the lack of milk froth – saying that the problem had “escalated quite significantly since the end of August” – and asked producers to be vigilant. The council’s observations, he said, were consistent with the presence of palm oil extracts.
The Dairy Farmers of Canada initially dismissed concerns about a change in butter quality.
But as concerns increased and Le Journal de Montréal published claims that more farmers admitted using palm extracts to feed their herds, the lobby group issued a follow-up statement, saying that although palm products are sometimes added to the ration of dairy cows, the practice has “a very limited impact on the profile of palmitic fatty acids in their milk”.
The Dairy Farmers of Canada said the practice of adding palm extracts to cow feed was common in the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.
On Wednesday, however, La Presse reported that the Quebec dairy industry board called for an immediate halt to the use of palm oil in cow feeding.
Alongside questions about the long-term health impacts of palm oil and its devastating environmental impact, Charlebois said the opaque response is equally worrying.
“Milk and butterfat must be considered public goods, due to our government quota system. There is a moral contract between the dairy industry and consumers, ”he said.
With Canadian taxpayers set to pay the industry $ 1.75 billion in subsidies over the next three years, largely as compensation for greater global access to domestic markets, Charlebois said the butter quality issues mean the moral contract has been violated.
Previous debates about managing the country’s supply have often been riddled with mysterious political issues, but Charlebois said that this time things looked different.
“People understand that butter should not destroy toast in the morning. And they also know that palm oil is bad. People understand these things. And that’s why I think people are a little shocked by what they’re hearing now. “