Has increased agricultural trade benefited Canadian consumers?
When one looks at net farm income, it is hard to argue that increased agri-food trade has benefited farmers-net incomes and prices for most commodities are down. Lower commodity prices can have offsetting benefits. If hogs are cheap, so too should be grocery-store pork. Lower farm prices and world prices, if they translate into lower food prices, could have a salutary effect on the economy as a whole, if not on farm families. Unfortunately this is not the case. Figure 5, below, compares farmgate hog prices to grocery-store pork prices.
