Degrowth paradigms in agri-food law and policy: lessons from Canada’s supply management sector

Given the important, even essential, role of food in our lives, agricultural production enjoys exceptional treatment in Canadian law as well as within international trade law (Trebilcok & Pue, 2015; Parent & Modou, 2018). One of the most controversial expressions of agricultural exceptionalism in Canada is its system of supply management, which controls production levels of certain food products (milk, eggs, poultry) in exchange for price stabilization guarantees for producers. Supply management was introduced in 1972 at a time of crisis for Canadian farmers facing price instability and fluctuations. Although supply management was an effective response to the problems at the time, it is now widely criticized for driving up commodity prices, discouraging innovation, encouraging anti-competitive practices and being incompatible with free-trade policies. But what if this much-maligned system actually holds potential solutions for a transition to a post-growth society? The COVID-19 pandemic marked a turning point in our understanding of the risks associated with our reliance on a just-in-time model of food supply chains. What's more, these risks and shocks go far beyond the pandemic. In today's globalized world, any incident can have far-reaching repercussions on supply chains, whether it's a forest fire in California, the war in Ukraine or a power failure on a cargo ship leading to the collapse of a bridge in Baltimore. During the pandemic, many turned their attention to Canada and its supply management system, recognizing that, for all its flaws, this marketing model enables the coordination of production adapted to consumer needs within territorialized food systems (Sharma, 2020). This project aimed to reframe current debates on agricultural exceptionalism by examining how supply management can serve as a legal foundation for agrifood policies that guarantee people's basic needs within a framed right to market. While there is indeed room for reform in the implementation of supply management in Canada today, the original aspirations behind the creation of this system should not be forgotten, and the time has come to breath new life into them.