Almost 200 potato farmers in the New Brunswick province of Canada will receive a multimillion-dollar settlement from their Federal government after a court ruling ended a 20-year legal battle over a virus outbreak. The Supreme Court of Canada has decided not to hear an appeal from the federal government in a lawsuit over a virus that devastated the province’s potato farms. The government must now negotiate a fair settlement with 180 farmers or have the courts determine one. The farmers have asked for $75 million, plus interest, in damages. The United States closed its borders to New Brunswick potato seed imports in 1991 to shield itself from the PVY-n potato virus. New Brunswick potato farmers originally lost a 14-year court battle, but then launched an appeal. The New Brunswick Court of Appeal sided with the farmers and overruled a trial judge in September 2008, finding the government at fault for the way in which the Agriculture Department dealt with the outbreak of PVY-n virus in 1989. The potato virus poses no risk to human health and it doesn’t seriously affect potatoes, but it can kill tobacco crops. An outbreak in a tobacco field at Port Bruce, Ont., in September 1989 was traced to an adjacent potato crop produced from seed from Prince Edward Island. The finding triggered years of border closures and the loss of key markets for many New Brunswick farmers. Lawyers for the farmers have argued that PVY-n spread to the Upper St. John Valley potato district because Agriculture Canada did not test P.E.I. seed.
Source: Canadian Press
Filed under: Government Regulations, In the News, Pests and Diseases, Seed Production, Seed Trade
