Jersey’s intensive potato farming must stop, says minister

Farmers are going to have to rethink their century-old practice of growing Jersey Royal potatoes year after year in the same ground in order to protect the Island’s reputation as a world-class food producer, according to the Environment Minister. Deputy Steve Luce described the recent discovery of the chemical oxadixyl in Jersey’s surface water supplies 13 years after it was last used, which forced Jersey Water to shut down Val de La Mare reservoir and divert streams away from other reservoirs, as a ‘wake up’ call for the industry and as a result, he said that farmers  now needed to work with the States to find an alternative to relying on chemicals. More