About George Morris Centre

George Morris Centre is a website about the economics of food and farming in Canada and North America. We explain how supply management works and what it costs, how trade agreements open and close markets, why grocery prices move the way they do, what is changing in the business of running a farm, and how farmers, processors and retailers work together or fail to. The writing is for farmers, people in food businesses, students, policy staff and anyone who has wondered why a litre of milk or a kilogram of beef costs what it does.

Why the name

This web address once belonged to the George Morris Centre for Agri-Food Research and Education, an economic research organisation in Guelph, Ontario, named after an Ontario farmer. It closed at the end of 2014. When the address became available years later, we took it over and kept the name because it fits the subject: the same questions about dairy policy, trade, food prices and value chains are still argued over today.

To be plain about it: this is an independent publication on agri-food policy, written by a new group of writers, and it has no connection with the former organisation, its staff, its board or its members. We do not speak for it, continue its research or sell its reports. Many pages on this site sit at web addresses that the old organisation once used, because other websites still link to them; each of those addresses now carries a new explainer on the same subject, with the date the address was first used.

What we cover

The articles are filed under seven issues: dairy and supply management, trade and markets, food prices and retail, farm business, value chains and food waste, a policy notebook, and the food and rural economy. The papers shelf collects the longer explainers on the old addresses, and the two hubs gather work on agri-food policy and value chains.

Who writes it

Five writers share the work, each following one corner of the subject: Colette Ranville on dairy and farm labour, Duncan Strathearn on trade agreements and policy frameworks, Navdeep Grewal on food prices and grocery retail, Annelies Dekker on farm business, value chains and food waste, and Reid Gauthier on livestock and grain markets. Their pages list everything they have written.

How we check what we publish

Figures, dates and program names come from public sources such as Statistics Canada, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Dairy Commission, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, provincial ministries, the WTO and the USDA. Where a number cannot be confirmed, we leave it out or describe the trend in general terms. Worked examples use round illustrative numbers and say so. We do not forecast commodity, land or quota prices and nothing here is investment, tax or legal advice.

If you spot a mistake, please tell us through the contact page. Corrections are made in the article itself.

Partner links

A few pages carry clearly labelled panels from course providers or booksellers we work with through affiliate networks. If you enrol or buy through one, the site may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Partners do not see articles before publication and have no say over what we write. The details are in the privacy policy.