Farmers offer reward to catch 'food terrorists' sticking nails in potatoes on Canada's Prince Edward Island

A picturesque corner of rural Canada best known as the idyllic home of Anne of Green Gables is now fighting for its economic life against a mysterious outbreak of alleged "food terrorism".

The prosperous farmers of Prince Edward Island in the gulf of St Lawrence have offered a reward of C$500,000 (HK$3.1 million) for tips leading to the conviction of the person or people who have been inserting pins and nails into potatoes grown on the island.

Since the sabotage began last October, tampered-with Prince Edward Island potatoes have been found in grocery stores in four different Canadian provinces, triggering what has been described as the most serious crisis to hit sleepy PEI since the British conquest of Acadia in 1710.

"It's food terrorism," said island potato farmer Alex Docherty. "The people doing this are cowards, lower than a snake wearing snowshoes. These are really evil people."

The saboteurs are also having a major impact on the local economy, where growing and processing the tubers is a billion-dollar industry, supplemented in the summer by Japanese tourists eager to visit the island's many shrines devoted to their cherished "red-haired Anne".

"Farm families all over the world work so hard to produce food and to have something like this happen is really disheartening," said Docherty, chairman of the Prince Edward Island Potato Board. "We want the cowards caught and dealt with to the full extent of the law."