LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS
A potato grower in Norman Wells says Nutrition North subsidies are drastically reducing his ability to sell local produce.

Doug Whiteman's grandson, Darren, helps harvest last year's potato crop in Norman Wells. Whiteman, owner of Green Enterprises, says his gardens now yield enough potatoes to supply every household in the Sahtu region. - photo courtesy of Doug Whiteman

Doug Whiteman, owner of Green Enterprises, has been successfully growing and selling potatoes in the Sahtu region for about three years. Whiteman, his family and other helpers tend the garden and harvest the potatoes which are then washed, bagged and delivered door-to-door. He also supplies restaurants in the region, and people travelling to Norman Wells from other communities often pick up a bag or two of potatoes to bring home, he says.

Whiteman was selling the potatoes at $2 a pound, which was often less than half the price of potatoes on grocery store shelves, he said.

But last year, when Whiteman asked people calling for deliveries to check the prices at their local grocery stores, he was shocked to learn the price had fallen to about $1.50 a pound for potatoes from Alberta.

Whiteman said with the harvest already in full swing, he had no choice but to match the grocery store prices.

"I realized it was the new Nutrition North subsidy that was putting those potatoes on the shelves in the store that cheap," he said. "I already had a crop out of the ground, nearly 20-thousand pounds. Now I gotta to sell it at 25 per cent of what I could usually make out of it."

Whiteman said because his potatoes are locally grown without herbicides or pesticides and are delivered directly to the customer, people were still buying his potatoes.

But, he said he is now questioning whether he will be able to continue.

"We still sold the crop, but at 25 per cent less than what I was making the year before, so it was a little discouraging," he said.

Whiteman said he would like to see a system in place where local suppliers are able to compete with Nutrition North prices.

Kevin Todd, director of investment and economic analysis for the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, said the territory's Small Scale Food Program that supports community gardens is typically focused on smaller projects than the one in Norman Wells.

But Whiteman said he did receive funding from the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment and the federal government to start his gardens.

There are currently community gardens in 29 communities in the NWT.

"It's generally pretty small-scale and usually there is not an issue with sales price or anything like that. It's more a small scale thing," he said.

However, he said the department would support entrepreneurs who wanted to expand their garden programs.

"We would definitely encourage that," he said.

Todd said there have been successful farmers' markets in Hay River and in Yellowknife.

But ultimately, Todd said consumers have the final choice on whether they buy local or from the grocery store.

"The government doesn't get involved in buy and sell decisions between private sector people," he said.

Whiteman said he and a friend attempted to grow potatoes in Norman Wells about 30 years ago with little success.

About eight years ago, Whiteman and another friend decided to try again. The first harvest yielded a field of tiny, grape-sized potatoes that "weren't even worth taking out of the ground," said Whiteman.

The pair kept at it and a few years later, they had their first marketable crop.

"For the last three seasons we've been quite successful in pulling a crop off that piece of land," said Whiteman.

Their best year yielded 30,000 pounds of potatoes. Whiteman's crop yields have varied over the years from 9,000 pounds to 30,000 pounds.

He added that through experimenting with different potato types and fertilizers over the years, he has found which potatoes grow best in Norman Wells.

He switched from primarily planting Red Norland potatoes to Satina and Amarosa - white varieties that harvest and store better than other types.

"You can put them into storage, they stay good and harvest well without cracking or bruising severely," he said.

Now, Whiteman estimates his gardens are capable of supplying potatoes to all five Sahtu-region communities.

"As far as the volume, I figured we could grow enough potatoes on this much land to feed every household in the Sahtu region," he said.

Whiteman said while potatoes are his cash crop, he has also successfully grown a variety of other vegetables during the 80-to-85-day growing season, such as radishes, lettuce, beets, carrots, celery, varieties of beans and peas and tomatoes. "You can grow just about anything in Norman Wells," he said.

Whiteman said he wanted to determine exactly how much could be grown in his community when he started with his garden.

"I was just experimenting with it, not truly wanting to make a business, but to see if it was possible," he said. "I proved it's possible."

Now, Whiteman said he has demonstrated how Northern gardens can feed entire communities.

He said a community garden can yield enough produce to last the summer growing season. With proper storage, communities could also supply themselves with food into the fall and winter.

"If you took four or five people and put them together on a venture like that, you could supply your community easily with many of the things they're having to subsidize on the store shelves," he said. "Agricultural co-ops would be the way to go."

Whiteman said items such as potatoes and other produce could be shipped to communities on an as-needed basis when locally grown food runs out.

Whiteman said he doesn't plan to plant a crop this year, but is letting his gardens lie fallow to regenerate and so he can battle the weeds that are threatening the cleared land.

He said no matter what happens, he hopes more gardeners and government will think about the potential Northern gardens have in providing fresh food to their communities.

"The land is capable of doing a lot more than what it's being used for at this time," he said. "In the smaller communities, you can have a community agricultural co-op that would have a decent sized garden that could provide a lot of food for the individuals."

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