Commission on Land guarantees continued support for industrial agriculture

Millvale-There is no question PEI needs a land use plan but the Liberal government plan released last week lacks vision, recycles bad policies already in place and guarantees human health, quality of life and the environment will continue to deteriorate, says Green Party of PEI leader Sharon Labchuk.

“The Liberals are clearly going to bat for corporate agriculture, even though agribiz, and the potato industry in particular, are responsible for devastating damage to land, water, soil, air, wildlife, human health and rural economies,” said Labchuk. “The commission’s focal point for a new land use vision, one that would promote a prosperous, unpolluted and healthy Island, should have been recommendations to put up road blocks to industrial agriculture and open doors for organic agriculture.”

Instead, said the Green party, the Commission did an end run around the Lands Protection Act by recommending corporate farms be allowed to own more land than the 3000 acre limit currently imposed on other Islanders. The Commission recommended no increase in the size of hopelessly inadequate 15 metre buffer zones between sprayed fields and streams, said Labchuk, but did recommend increased subsidies to growers who pollute air and water with chemicals.

“Virtually every drop of drinking water in PEI is contaminated with chemical fertilizer and we have yet to see the full extent of pollution from decades of dumping known groundwater polluting pesticides into the environment,” said Labchuk.  “We all breathe air laced with a cocktail of cancer-causing pesticides and the situation worsens with each passing year. Coincidentally so does the incidence of cancer, birth defects, learning disabilities, Parkinson’s and other diseases. No land use recommendations in this report will stop this pollution.”

Some Islanders will remember that prior to 1990 the Island landscape looked very different and the quality of air and water was better.  The Liberal government of the time increased subsidies to industrial agriculture so that potato acreage increased by 70%, encroaching on homes, schools, tourist accommodations and watercourses, and pesticide use increased by at least 500%.

“Communities, Cultural Affairs and Labour Minister Carolyn Bertram says she will launch public consultations based on the Liberal party vision for the Island,” said Labchuk.  “This vision includes continued support for industrial agriculture and guarantees the air Islanders breathe will remain contaminated with toxic levels of pesticides. For many Islanders the Liberal party vision is their worst nightmare.”

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 Contact:

Sharon Labchuk
902-621-0719
902-940-1262  cell
slabchuk@gmail.com