Henk Van Essen was arrested in April for allegedly producing too many eggs. Alberta farmers who don’t have quota can only have up to 300 laying hens.LEAH HENNEL/The Globe and Mail
On a sunny morning in April, police officers arrived at the house of Henk Van Essen, arrested the small-town Alberta chicken farmer and locked him behind bars for two nights.
He was accused of producing too many eggs.
In Alberta’s supply-management system, farmers like Mr. Van Essen who have not been granted quota can have only 300 laying hens. Egg Farmers of Alberta, the industry association, said it has reason to believe he was raising thousands.
Mr. Van Essen put his farm up for sale on May 1 after a four-year saga. While he denies any wrongdoing, he said 300 hens isn’t enough for small-scale farmers like himself to turn a profit.
“It’s impossible under any circumstance,” he said. “Unless those chickens were to start laying golden eggs.”
The story of Mr. Van Essen’s jail stint highlights the long-standing controversy over Canada’s supply management system, which has returned to the spotlight in recent months as U.S. President Donald Trump has pressed for access to the Canadian market and threatened to punish Canada for being unfair to American farmers.
Dairy farmers tout benefits of Canada’s supply management system under threat from Trump
Established more than five decades ago, the system controls the domestic supply of dairy, poultry and eggs through production quotas, pricing mechanisms and import restrictions to protect farmers from foreign competition.
To proponents, Mr. Van Essen ignored the rules of a system key to Canadian food sovereignty and security. Supply management keeps smaller-scale farmers in business, diversifies food production and keeps geographically diverse rural economies alive, they say.
To critics, Mr. Van Essen fell prey to a broken system they say is designed to protect larger farms, to the detriment of small-scale ones and – through artificially high prices – consumers. (The average retail cost of a dozen eggs rose by about 10 per cent between January, 2024, and January, 2025, more than five times the 1.9-per-cent rate of inflation on general grocery-store purchases.)
Mr. Van Essen tried to expand into egg farming but was unable to get quota.LEAH HENNEL/The Globe and Mail
For decades, Mr. Van Essen farmed just outside the small agricultural town of Iron Springs, Alta., raising day-old chicks to 19-week-old immature egg-laying hens called pullets. They would be sold to egg farms.
In 2014, he tried to expand into egg farming by applying for the province’s new-entrant program, which gives start-up chicken farmers access to quota for 5,500 laying hens.
Under Alberta’s supply-management system for eggs, this is the only affordable way to scale production.
The other methods are buying a farm in its entirety or bidding for new quota. In May, the average price of quota for one laying hen was $767.48. That price does not include the livestock.
Mr. Van Essen – alongside 40 other applicants – did not get quota under the new-entrant program. The farmer did not apply for quota again.
But he wasn’t finished with the idea of producing eggs.
In 2021, Mr. Van Essen took out a loan and built a new, bigger barn. The original plan was to raise more pullets. However, he didn’t sell all his chickens and decided to finally try egg farming.
He labelled his eggs “Sundial Poultry,” bought a federally licensed grading station to check for abnormalities, and sold cartons to neighbours and in local stores.
It wasn’t long until Egg Farmers of Alberta grew suspicious.
Mr. Van Essen’s barn had the capacity for a few thousand laying hens, said David Webb, marketing and communications manager for the association, adding that eggs were also reportedly lining the shelves of local stores at a rate far exceeding the capacity of even the most industrious 300 laying hens.
The marketing board gave Mr. Van Essen the opportunity to cut production numerous times, Mr. Webb said. And sometimes he would, Mr. Webb said, but the number of laying hens would eventually start to creep back up.
“It has been a constant cycle over the past four years,” said Mr. Webb.
Mr. Van Essen declined to comment on whether he had more than 300 laying hens.
He did say that he had racked up around $24,000 in fines since 2021.
In March, the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta issued a warrant for his arrest. He had failed to comply with multiple court orders, including a demand that he follow Alberta’s agricultural marketing regulations, according to court documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.
After two nights in jail, the judge released Mr. Van Essen on the condition that he permit an inspection of his property and submit a full accounting of his sales of eggs to Egg Farmers of Alberta.
A few days later, the inspector went into his barn. They found it was in compliance. The number of hens did not surpass 300.
Mr. Van Essen declined to comment on the potential existence or whereabouts of additional chickens.
Mr. Van Essen said he feels he has no choice but to sell his farm.LEAH HENNEL/The Globe and Mail
Jodey Nurse, an agricultural historian at the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, said the supply management system works because it keeps farmers in business by offering prices that cover the costs of production.
However, to continue to protect smaller-scale farmers – as it is also designed to do – it must have a robust new-entrant program, she said.
Since its launch in 2012, Egg Farmers of Alberta has run its new-entrant program four times and granted quota to 28 new entrants.
The program, which Mr. Van Essen had unsuccessfully applied for, runs only when adequate quota exists for new entrants. The amount put aside is 10 per cent of the total allotted in Alberta. The remaining 90 per cent goes to existing farms on a pro rata basis: the larger the farm, the larger the quota.
As he waits for a buyer, Mr. Van Essen said he is disappointed to leave the farm behind but feels like he has no choice because of supply management.
“It’s about control. It’s about money. It‘s about big business,” he said.