Of the 40 farm communities that are scattered across this land, in each one you can find six, eight, ten very dedicated farm families who have had to give up farming this year. Should the trend continue, an equal number, if not more, will be lost next year. This is, indeed, a crisis. It's a very severe set of circumstances that have harmed agriculture and harmed it significantly. Jeffries said the economic effect goes beyond the individual farmer.
Every community including the bigger ones, all depend on the money that's generated.
And as it stays down and people start to tighten up and they start to drop out of business, then that money is not going to be there, and I'm going to venture to say that, yes, it's really going to hurt the economy. The nearby town of St. John's is already feeling the pinch. The only women's clothing store closed recently, after operating for more than 15 years. People are frightened because we don't know what is going to happen. And when you don't know what is coming, it's a frightening experience.