CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island (AP) – Bud the Spud, the fictitious driver celebrated in song, won’t be rolling down the highway much this year, thanks to the Atkins diet and a major oversupply of potatoes on Prince Edward Island.

Island farmers are facing an economic catastrophe as they try to figure out what to do with the mountains of unsold and unwanted spuds filling up their storage barns.

“We still have 80 percent of our potatoes in storage,” says Danny Hendricken, who operates a family farm in Mount Stewart.

“The markets available to us cover just a fraction of the total that’s in storage right now.”

There’s a whole lot of blame going around for the predicament Island farmers find themselves in today, but it’s hard not to point an accusing finger at the latest diet craze sweeping the world – the anti-carbohydrate, high-protein Atkins diet. Potatoes are among the “white” foods outlawed by the diet, along with items like rice, pasta and bread. Millions of dieters have taken the advice to heart, either cutting back or completely eliminating high-carb products from their meals.

Hendricken says the diet is having a negative impact on farmers.

“I think it’s going to be a fad, but anytime you have a large segment of the population not eating a certain foodstuff, it’s the primary producer who really suffers,” he says.

“I can’t understand it myself. It flies in the face of everything nutritionists recommend… unless you dump gravy or other fats on it, the potato is a good, weight-conscious food.”

Hendricken, a district director for the National Farmers Union, wants farmers and governments to do a better job marketing the spud and encouraging greater consumption.

That’s what’s happening in countries like the United Kingdom where the British Potato Council recently launched a multi-million-dollar campaign to highlight the health benefits of the humble potato.

Ivan Noonan of the Prince Edward Island Potato Board says the farm organization has doubled its marketing budget to close to $800,000 to help boost sales in central Canada.

Noonan says advertisements on radio, in newspapers and on billboards in places like the Greater Toronto Area and Montreal are designed to put spuds in a good light.

“We just want to remind people as they head out to buy their groceries that P.E.I. potatoes are great,” he says.

The problem facing Island farmers isn’t only because of diet fads.

Noonan says last year was a great growing year across North America, with bumper crops in the producing states and provinces.

Island farmers already have significantly cut their acreage over the past couple of years, and it will be reduced even more in the coming growing season, beginning this spring.

Noonan says some farmers won’t survive the downturn.

“We’ll probably see a bigger exodus from agriculture in the next couple of years than we’ve ever seen before,” he says.

The returns are not good enough to make farming viable for many people, Noonan says, especially smaller family operations that can’t rely on economies of scale and large processing contracts to keep them going.

“You pay $2.99 for a 10-pound bag of potatoes in the supermarket and you think that’s pretty reasonable,” he says.

“But the farmer only gets 40 or 50 cents, not enough to cover the cost of production. That’s where the problem is.”

Hendricken says governments will have to become more involved in the marketing and promotion of the potato industry, as well as helping farmers get through tough times with bridging loans.

He says farmers need government help now to dispose of all the unwanted spuds, preferably through composting rather than simply being dumped and left to rot on fields.

The mass dumping of potatoes could cause environmental damage.

“The potato industry is an important piston in the engine that runs the P.E.I. economy,” he says.

“What we need is for government to roll up its sleeves and have a take charge attitude saying, ‘This is what has to be done to put our house in order.’ This is a resource that if used properly can generate a lot of benefit.”

AP-ES-02-15-04 1635EST



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