About 20 years ago, P.E.I. farmer Rose Viaene watched her husband David take their tractor out into their farm fields and destroy their garlic crop — an act of defiance born out of frustration with Canada’s large grocery chains.
Viaene said before then, their garlic was sold across Atlantic Canada, including at Sobeys and Real Canadian Superstore. But that relationship changed when grocery retailers began importing cheaper garlic from China.
The large retailers were still open to buying garlic from the farmers, but Viaene said the offer was too low — just 50 cents per pound when it cost the farm $7 per pound to produce.
“We were at the mercy of the big corporates or the buyers at that time,” Viaene explained.
But rather than take the offer and eat the loss, the couple refused.
“Hell no, we’re not going to do it,” she recalled deciding. “We’re not going to let them make the money and us go see the bank again for another winter to support us. No, we weren’t going to do that.”
Trisha, left, and Rose Viaene run the Riverview Country Market in Charlottetown. About 20 years ago, Rose and her husband David decided to destroy their garlic crop rather than sell it to Canadian grocery giants for a paltry price. (Jennifer Chevalier/CBC)
Jenn Pfenning, president of the National Farmers Union, said that same frustration the Vianaes felt toward Canada’s large grocery retailers “is repeated multiple times a day,
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