News

Supply management a touchy subject during Corn Congress

Supply management is one of the topics being discussed during Corn Congress this week.

Minnesota Corn Growers president Les Anderson tells Brownfield it’s a very touchy subject.

I think it was brought up more just for discussion almost, because it does keep coming up. But nobody seems to think it’s a good idea (and) nobody really wants to go down that road of supply management, set aside type (programs). But everybody’s thinking about what to do with all this corn we’ve got coming.”

He says the last time supply management measures were in place, the U.S. was by far the largest supplier of corn and soybeans in the world.

“But now, in this world market and with the technology, there’s a lot of acres and a lot of production elsewhere. So anything we cut back here, they’d be more than happy to fill the gap. It wouldn’t work as well as it would in the past.”

Anderson says supply management did not work that well before, and certainly wouldn’t work well right now.

His hope is demand will improve to the point that supply management is no longer a consideration.