Quebec is taking this poutine staple very seriously

0:00America leads the world in medicine development. It matters. We get new medicines first nearly three years faster. Five million Americans go to work because we make medicines here at home and not relying on other countries keeps us safe. But China is racing to overtake us. Will we let them or will we choose to stay ahead? When America leads, America cures. Let's tell Washington to keep us in the lead. Learn how at americancures.com. Pay for it by pharma. Once again, there is a province in this country asking for some special treatment. But this one is a little different. Quebec is wanting special designation. When it comes to a food product and this food product is fresh cheese curds. And my next guest has written about this about what it could potentially look like. Whether or not this is even necessary and Sylvan Charlebois joins me now. The director of the agro food analytics lab at Delhause University. Also the co-host of the food professor podcast and a visiting scholar at McGill University.

1:05Sylvan, thank you for being with us again. Hey, good afternoon. This seems like a bit of a strange one. But how did this all come about? That Quebec wants special designation when it comes to cheese curds. I've tasted cheese curds from BC and they're very good. Apparently it's different in Quebec. They want to recognize a specific protocols, forcing manufacturers, dairy manufacturers to only use Quebec milk. And Quebec milk is no different than milk from BC by the way. But they do want to get processors to buy and use only Quebec milk and get that special designation. And in Quebec they have this special program. It's the only province that does that. Which recognizes the know how the terroir which is really embracing the differences in terms of geography where food products are actually made. They've done it with

2:06Veal from Shalavuash. Shalavuash is a region in Quebec. They've done that with with corn on a cob in Newville. Newville is a region, another region in Quebec. For this one for cheese curds it's for the province, the entire province because there are several manufacturers of cheese curds and they want to do that basically to protect the integrity of the product and the province. But like you said this isn't something that's different from other provinces in Canada because wouldn't cheese curds also fall under supply management? Isn't this the whole point of supply management in that it's kind of the same thing no matter what province you're in? You betcha absolutely and I think this is more of a defensive move against Cosma 2.0 if you will. There are rumors that perhaps we would allow more dairy proteins into the game market coming from the United States because the Americans are likely not interested

3:08in selling finished products, finished dairy products to Canadians knowing the canes wouldn't buy them but they wouldn't care if dairy proteins come from the US and it's in our cheese for example in our yogurt and things like that. It has happened before by the way and I suspect that it could happen again now to defend and protect the integrity of cheese and cheese curds in this case. My guess is that dairy farmers just want to entice force dairy processors to continue to buy only Quebec made milk to support cheese curred production. Like you said there are foods and I think we can look to Europe and you've written about this there are foods that can only be called certain things when they are from certain regions and they do get that kind of protection. Would there be a downside if Quebec got what it wanted and yes they said okay fine you can you can have this special designation would it really change anything other than it would bring

4:09in those specifics for those cheese curds? The thing about now is because we've been talking about inter-provincial trade barriers for a while now this would actually add an extra barrier essentially and so you have perhaps you have Ontario right next door or New Brunswick that could actually transact and sell cheese curds but I suspect that they they will want a program and entice consumers in Quebec to only buy these cheese curds whereas I would argue that in Ontario or even in New Brunswick there's there's really good cheese curds you're just it's more of a protectionist measure that's the way I see it at least that's how a lot of people are perceiving it so on one side I can understand why they're doing it is to celebrate the terrois celebrate the origin of cheese curds in Quebec by the way Quebec did not invent cheese curds that's

5:09the other issue right it's been around for a lot longer than Quebec by the way we're talking thousands and thousands of years it's just it got celebrated and it got cheese curds became mainstream because of Putin basically that's that's the cheese that goes with Putin and so that's why there's something a lot of cheese curds now and they just wanted to protect the integrity of the supply chain wouldn't it make it more expensive though in Quebec and wouldn't it make it so like you said you can buy them in BC you can buy them in Ontario if that's fine if Quebec wanted these protections but wouldn't it hurt end up hurting that province I suspect so and I do believe that it could actually raise prices for Quebec cheese curds now you can argue perhaps that other cheese curds are not are not as as good this is the one thing that I I think this is this could be a dangerous designation is that a lot of people may think well it's it's a controlled

6:12designation it means better quality not really it's just a special designation that's all it is I'm not so he can't suggest that in Quebec cheese curds are better than the ones you would find in BC there's no evidence of that right and you mentioned as well Sylvan the interprovincial trade issues the fact that Kuzma the Canada US Mexico agreement is going to be renegotiated but in the piece you wrote about this so what what also stuck out to me was okay what if this goes forward and Quebec gets what it wants what's next is maple syrup next are we not potentially going down this road where if we start giving all of these special designations and bringing in all these rules does it not again up the price of all of these things oh absolutely so you we've seen several products being given this special designation I would say that cheese curds are probably the first one that would raise some eyebrows outside of Quebec because there are several cheese

7:15curds operators outside of Quebec and it would be the same for maple syrup and it's coming up maple syrup will be next it's next on the list and but of course in Nova Scotia we do produce maple syrup and Ontario produces maple syrup and I suspect that in British Columbia there are maple syrup producers as well and so those are things that I think will need to be revised but right now when you look at the governance of the program itself for controlled designations there's there's little or no input given by parties outside the province but and also looking at maple syrup manufacturing from the little that I've looked into it and I will fully admit a lot of this comes from watching that mini series called the sticky that it's a pretty it is a cut to industry you don't want to screw around with people who are involved with maple syrup it seems like that would be that would be a very difficult situation oh absolutely of course

8:20they have a marketing board in in Quebec and and they control the market because Quebec produces about 75% of of the world's maple syrup so they do control prices and they've set up this this this single desk system allowing producers to get a fair price but it is heavily controlled so it's always hard to get maple syrup on sale but if they get a special designation well guess what's going to happen to Quebec maple syrup it's going to get more expensive unfortunately so going back to cheese curds and Quebec moving ahead with plans they want their cheese curds recognized they want them designated who would make that decision how would that actually happen well it's up to the bureau there's a special bureau in Quebec actually in Quebec there's a bureau for basically everything I think there's a beautiful oxygen I'm just kidding but there's there's so this bureau will actually make a decision but what what I what I'm concerned about is that you know if if someone in BC's concerned about this they they would have little or no input or they wouldn't

9:24be invited to say anything I've always believed that in order to recognize these things like the know how of cheese curds without putting a border around it I would say that UNESCO is probably the best body to do that it wouldn't dispute that Quebec cheese curds are better or different than cheese curds in Ontario or BC it would just say that cheese curds in general are a special product and and that history needs to be recognized they've that they've done that would rise they've done that with the baguette they've done that would breathe they've done that with Chinese tea and I would say well Chinese with with cheese curds it would fit interesting to see what Quebec is looking for in this Sylvan Charlotte while we will leave it there for today thank you for joining us have a great weekend you too bye bye hello there Thursdays on global I'm Madeline Matlock she's the lawyer with a legendary name don't underestimate this Matlock this woman is a sharp

10:26you know it baby the one you can trust even if she has to bend the rules things aren't always black and white as they seem to crack a case this is how I get things done any winning actress Kathy Bates is Madlock all new Thursdays at 90s turn on global stream on stack tv