Media Clipping — Saturday August.16th, 2008, The Chronicle Herald

N.S. farmers mired in debt

Herman Berfelo and his family have tended to thousands of hogs on their sprawling farm in central Nova Scotia for more than five decades.

His father started the once-lucrative operation in 1950 and now Berfelo and his son are trying to maintain the 220-hectare operation in Stewiacke.

But the veteran farmer is weighing his future in the business as his debt grows and the price he gets for his pork products slumps because of cheap im ports — factors a new study suggests are threatening the viability of farm ing in the region.

“It could very well be (the last gener ation)," Mr. Berfelo, 68, said from his far m, where they produce sausages, ham, bacon and other pork products.

“It’s sad to see it all go the way it is because if you look up and down in a lot of areas you see a lot of abandoned farms that are perfectly good farm land. . . . It’s just becoming more and more difficult."

The sentiment appears to be spread ing among farmers in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, according to a report released Friday that shows more are sinking deeper into debt as the cost of doing business rises while the returns keep shrinking.

GPI Atlantic, the non-profit research group in Nova Scotia, released the report, which found that since 1971, net farm income has dropped an average of 91 per cent in Nova Scotia and 92 per cent in P.E.I.

Jennifer Scott authored the report and was shocked by the results she uncovered while interviewing farmers and industry experts in the two provinces.

“Look, farming generates wealth in this economy but the only ones who don’t benefit from this wealth are the farmers," she said. “Consumers insist on the cheapest prices and that results in local farmers getting less for their product or the importation of cheaper food that is grown with different standards than we do in Atlantic Canada."

Expenses have grown so high for some farmers there is nothing left for profit.

Statistics show the total farm debt in Nova Scotia increased by 146 per cent between 1971 and 2006 and by 445 per cent in P.E.I. Willy Versteeg, president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Agriculture, ex pressed no surprise at any of the figures released in the 80-page report.

“There is simply an impending di saster in this industry and we’ve been saying this for a long time," said Mr. Versteeg. “We’ve gone through the process with government and everyone knows what needs to be done, and what we need now is to act on the information," he added.

Mr. Versteeg said farmers have tired of beating the same old drum.

“They tell me the government needs to get it between the eyes and that it’s not about rallies on Hollis Street any more."

The Shubenacadie dairy farmer said the increase in fuel, transportation, fertilizer and just about everything farmers need to produce their product will probably force the tide to turn.

“When your return has always at best been in the area of five per cent and now it’s gone down to zero, it doesn’t take long before farms go out of busi ness," he said. The federal and provincial govern ments invest in the area of $90 million in the industry each year, he estimated. “Obviously, if the farmers saw more of that funding up front, they’d be able to diversify, to consider value-added products to increase their profit," he said.

The answers are there, Mr. Versteeg said.

“Oh, it doesn’t have to be invented be cause the federation did weekly meet ings with staff from the Department of Agriculture last year and we let them know what is needed," he said.

The report also shocked this prov ince’s agriculture minister.

“The results of the Atlantic GPI (Gen uine Progress Index) are most worri some and most of us would recognize farm incomes are in decline but their numbers are staggering," Brook Tay lor said during a telephone interview Friday.

“The percentage of the drop in net farm income is phenomenal," he add ed.

Mr. Taylor agreed the provincial gov ernment has a big role to play in assist ing the industry.

“Certainly, there has to be a better way to do the allocations and we will be looking at it, as a result of the GPI study," Mr. Taylor said. Mr. Versteeg said the farmers of this province and P.E.I. are hoping their governments are ready to act now.

Copyright © 2008, The Canadian Press and Mary EllenMacIntyre