Prince Edward Island potato farmers are having a hard time. Gerry Linkletter, chair of the P.E.I Potato Board, described his own situation in a recent CBC interview, “On our farm we used to figure we had three crops before we’d go bankrupt. Now one crop will drive you bankrupt if you were to lose a crop. The input costs, the fertilizers, the chemicals, the land rent, everything has gotten so expensive.”
P.E.I potatoes, grown in the island’s unique red soil, are the subject of Canadian lore. Deceased baladeer, Stompin’ Tom Connors sang of their glory in his tune ‘Bud the Spud’ describing them as “the best dog-gone potatoes’.
But now profit margins are so low, some farmers are giving up. David Best, a farmer for 55 years, said “the margins are so slim that if you make one slip your drowned”. This spring he decided he can’t afford a potato crop.
Profit margins across Canada average 6.15 per cent and in neighbouring New Brunswick it is 6.54 per cent. In P.E.I farmers have to make do with just 1.82 per cent.
Over the last 10 years more than 100 P.E.I. farmers have either retired or given up. Gary Linkletter says the answer is more research and cooperation.
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