PEI potato growers in Canada dread a repeat of history
신선 일반 감자
캐나다
게시됨 2021년 12월 21일
Tridge 요약
How do you destroy a potato?You put it through a snowblower, which will chop it into lots of tiny pieces.This is not a joke, and if you are a potato grower on Canada’s Prince Edward Island, it is the diametric opposite of funny.
원본 콘텐츠
The potatoes must be shredded in frosty conditions to make sure the pathogen is eliminated—the pathogen in this case being the potato wart, which was eradicated in the U.S. in the seventies.This dreary fate may await much of the PEI potato crop if growers cannot find adequate markets apart from the United States. It is particularly bitter for them inasmuch as this year’s estimated PEI potato crop (as of December 7) was 28,510 cwt, up 35.8 percent from the 2020 crop of 21,000 cwt.The situation started in October, when potato wart was detected on two PEI farms.On November 2, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) announced the suspension of the movement of seed potatoes from PEI to the United States. This was followed by a full suspension of all potato exports to the U.S. (and of seed potatoes to other Canadian provinces) on November 22.The move, welcomed by U.S. agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack, was proactive: the Canadian authorities had every reason to believe that if they ...