The C.F'n.I.A: Part One

I am happily employed in the livestock feed industry.  I work for a small but successful feed ingredient distributor that imports livestock feed ingredients from around the world and distributes them across Canada.  During my almost 9 year run with the company I have seen first hand some of the government involvement with our business.

The CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) is the regulatory body responsible for overseeing the food and animal feed industries.  There objectives, taken from the CFIA website are as follows; 

“Our strategic outcomes

•Public health risks associated with the food supply and transmission of animal disease to humans are minimized and managed

•A safe and sustainable plant and animal resource base

•Contributes to consumer protection and market access based on the application of science and standards”

Through a number of different acts they have the ability to act as a regulatory body over the industries associated with food and food manufacturing.  The resulting bureaucracy can be very far-reaching and at times a detriment to the livestock feed industry.  I have some experience in dealing with the CFIA and it usually deals with the following;

The CFIA has created a list of single ingredients that can be used in livestock feed.  The list is large and encompasses proteins, vitamins, minerals, energy ingredients etc…Any new products for use in the livestock feed industry that contain a mixture of ingredients must only contain ingredients found in that list.  When we import feed ingredients, the product is a mixture of single ingredients and we have to register the product with the CFIA before we can import the product. 

After the registration process we can then sell it for 3 years, and then we have to renew the registration.  We essentially have to tell the CFIA what is in the product, in what quantities, what species it’s for and how to use it.  The CFIA will come back to us with questions or give us the ok to use it.  The purpose of this is to ensure that the ingredients used are safe for the animals and for the end consumer purchasing meat, eggs or milk. 

Another purpose of the CFIA that we run into, and the most troubling, is the part of the CFIA that controls what you are allowed to advertise and claim for your product as a benefit.  For the purpose of my blog, I won’t debate if the CFIA is necessary for maintaining a safe food supply (I would argue it isn’t necessary in a free society).

In part two, I will go into detail of why I think the CFIA is both unnecessary and a detriment to free market opportunities in the livestock feed business.  Their over-reaching functions creates waste through compliance, acts as a barrier to trade and reduces the choices available to producers, something that is undesirable in a free market of private business owners.