[Section 15] Election called in PEI

Canada's tiniest province is having an election, and the provincial Green Party there is running candidates. Their website is up at http://greenparty.pe.ca/.

I had the chance to talk in person last October with Sharon Labchuk, the outgoing leader of the GPPEI, and she's rightfully critical of the farm production monoculture on the island. The sheer volume of pesticides and fungicides is incredible. It's as if everyone on the island is a guinea pig in some mad evolutionary experiment. Being a largely closed, isolated ecosystem, I wonder what kind of damage is going on? There's some evidence that PEI is becoming a hotbed of cancer:

Despite repeated assertions from government officials that the statistics don't provide any proof, many Prince Edward Island residents believe that heavy pesticide use on the island's potato farms is causing high rates of cancer and other diseases. With about 7,000 fields spanning 110,000 acres, the small island produces more than a billion kilograms of potatoes every year, making PEI one of the most intensely-farmed areas in Canada.

The tiny island of PEI, which is small enough to fit into Saskatchewan 115 times, supplies nearly 30 percent of Canada's potato market. But there is a heavy price to pay for the tremendous agricultural production. According to PEI Green Party leader Sharon Labchuk, potatoes grown on that magnitude require "enormous amounts" of fungicidal chemicals to ward off blight, a disease that can devastate potato crops. Labchuk says the crops are sprayed about 20 times per year—every four days in blight season—and the three main fungicidals used on the potatoes have been classed as carcinogens by the U.S. government.

Since the 1980s, potato production in PEI has doubled, but pesticide use has soared by 700 percent in the same period.

"Both Liberals and Conservatives have sunk a ton of taxpayers' money into subsidizing the industry, and what we have now is a virtual potato monoculture," says Labchuk. "You grow a monoculture in this industrial system and you're tied to the chemicals."

Labchuk points out that because PEI is densely populated—the most densely-populated province in Canada, in far—the potato fields are interspersed among the homes, hospitals, daycares and schools, which means that people are constantly within range of the sprays.

But experts disagree on whether this chemical exposure has resulted in unusually high cancer rates on the island.

Linda Van Til, Epidemiologist for the PEI Department of Health, says that while PEI cancer rates have spiked here and there, the overall trend tends to be on a par with the rest of Canada. Van Til says one of the few cancers that has been demonstrated to fluctuate with pesticide use is non-Hodgekins lymphoma, but tracking by the Health Department has shown no increase in the prevalence of that cancer.

"It certainly seems that the cancers we do see, the higher trends are related to much more mundane things such as smoking and diet, which is regrettably low in fruits and vegetables," says Van Til.

But Dr. Ron Matsusaki, emergency room physician at Western Hospital in Alberton, says that in all the years he's worked as a doctor both in Canada and the U.S., he hasn't seen cancer rates that come even remotely close to what he's seeing in the West Prince area of PEI. He says he has no doubt that these cancers are caused by "an insane amount" of chemical pesticides. Every second household in Mimnegash, a fishing village in West Prince surrounded by potato fields, has been afflicted with cancer, according to Matsusaki.

Since the 1980s, potato production in PEI has doubled, but pesticide use has soared by 700 percent in the same period.

"Both Liberals and Conservatives have sunk a ton of taxpayers' money into subsidizing the industry, and what we have now is a virtual potato monoculture," says Labchuk. "You grow a monoculture in this industrial system and you're tied to the chemicals."

Labchuk points out that because PEI is densely populated—the most densely-populated province in Canada, in far—the potato fields are interspersed among the homes, hospitals, daycares and schools, which means that people are constantly within range of the sprays.

But experts disagree on whether this chemical exposure has resulted in unusually high cancer rates on the island.

Linda Van Til, Epidemiologist for the PEI Department of Health, says that while PEI cancer rates have spiked here and there, the overall trend tends to be on a par with the rest of Canada. Van Til says one of the few cancers that has been demonstrated to fluctuate with pesticide use is non-Hodgekins lymphoma, but tracking by the Health Department has shown no increase in the prevalence of that cancer.

"It certainly seems that the cancers we do see, the higher trends are related to much more mundane things such as smoking and diet, which is regrettably low in fruits and vegetables," says Van Til.

But Dr. Ron Matsusaki, emergency room physician at Western Hospital in Alberton, says that in all the years he's worked as a doctor both in Canada and the U.S., he hasn't seen cancer rates that come even remotely close to what he's seeing in the West Prince area of PEI. He says he has no doubt that these cancers are caused by "an insane amount" of chemical pesticides. Every second household in Mimnegash, a fishing village in West Prince surrounded by potato fields, has been afflicted with cancer, according to Matsusaki.

These things are always controversial... but is it not warranted to be cautious? Is the potato production monoculture worth it?

Binn is expected to coast to a majority. I wonder if the greens can make the road a bit more bumpy for him?

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Posted By Mark Francis to Section 15 at 5/01/2007 05:32:00 PM