Per-capita consumption of fluid milk in Canada fell by 18 per cent between 1995 and 2014. This mirrors a similar decline in many other developed countries.Bronwyn8/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Got research
Re Got Milk? More Canadians Say No (Aug. 27): Yes, per-capita consumption of fluid milk in Canada fell by 18 per cent between 1995 and 2014. This mirrors a similar decline in many other developed countries.
However, more importantly, this decline in Canada has been more than offset by a corresponding rise in the consumption of other dairy products. These include a significant uptick in the consumption of cream, cheeses and yogurt.
Prof. Sylvain Charlebois says we "have these supercows producing a lot of milk, and a lot of consumers don't see anything natural in that. And that's why some Canadians just reject that." The Canadian dairy industry couldn't agree more. This is precisely why rBST, a growth hormone used by other jurisdictions to increase milk production, is illegal in Canada – a policy Canadian dairy farmers fully endorse.
As for Dr. Yoni Freedhoff's claim, the nutritional and health benefits of consuming milk and milk products are well documented, supported by decades of research and consistently reinforced by nutrition and scientific communities around the world. Wally Smith, president, Dairy Farmers of Canada
The sad casino
Re Rebound Fizzles In Late Sell-Off (Aug. 26): Jason Donville of Donville Kent Asset Management calls the volatility "just a market correction." Surely the term "market correction" is one of the most insidious euphemisms concocted to explain the drop in the "value" of stocks. What exactly is being corrected? The exuberance of ordinary people expecting some sort of return on their investments? Enter the casino at your own risk. How sad. Robert Milan, Winnipeg
Earl's 16th minute
You love to gloat about how the sky is falling every time Wall Street lays an egg, but when the markets recover, where are you? The good news is often hidden down below where nobody can see it, far below the headlines predicting a recession is imminent. On Tuesday's front page (Markets In A Tailspin, Aug. 25) you remarked how Monday was the worst day for the stock market in four years, but wait a minute – I've read nothing but doom and gloom about the economic crisis of the day, whatever it happens to be, for the past four years. You can't have it both ways. Maxwell Kates, Toronto
Certainly wasn't
Re Zeal For Balanced Budget May Boost Household Debt (Aug. 21): Munir Sheikh writes that, "Contrary to the popular myth, that recession [2008-09] was a little deeper here than in the United States, as measured by the decline in GDP." It most certainly wasn't. U.S. real GDP peaked in the fourth quarter of 2007, dropped by 0.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2008, increased by 0.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2008 and then fell for the next four quarters. Measured from its 2007 fourth-quarter peak to its 2009 second-quarter trough, the decline in real GDP in the United States was minus 4.24 per cent. This is about the same, but still a slightly deeper decline than Canada's minus 4.19 per cent from its 2008 third-quarter peak to its 2009 second-quarter trough.
Revisions have changed the amplitude of both recessions, and have on balance eroded without erasing the gap between the two. In its January, 2010, Monetary Policy Report, the Bank of Canada noted that there had been a 3.3-per-cent decline in real GDP in Canada in the recession, as opposed to a 3.7-per-cent decline in the United States. Munir Sheikh was chief statistician then – popular myth, indeed! Andrew Baldwin, Ottawa