I have a confession. When I eat at a restaurant, I typically do not order meat since I consume my fair share at home, on sales calls, training sessions, and customer plant tours. I usually select a restaurant menu item such as seafood or pasta, and one of my vices during the summer are mussels and oysters, especially those sourced from Prince Edward Island (PEI) in Canada. When my wife said our extended family trip would be in PEI this summer, I was ecstatic about gorging myself on mussels and oysters. (Little did I know that I would also eat my weight in PEI potatoes as well.) My wife directed me to the online menus of several restaurants in the provincial capital of Charlottetown and other parts of the island, and while oysters, lobsters, and mussels were prominently featured on menus as starters and mains, another menu category immediately grabbed my attention—Prince Edward Island Certified Beef.

PEI has a rich agricultural history. The French first laid claim to the island between the Northumberland Strait and the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the early sixteenth century, and the French established the first permanent in 1720. The massive trees and thick forest befuddled the first settlers on the island and clearing land for farmland and pasture proved difficult. The French were also the first to introduce animals to PEI, and the British continued raising cattle on the island after they took over PEI after the end of the Seven Years War (also known as the French & Indian War in the colonies) in 1763. The slow process of clearing land had also yielded richer soil, and it was the introduction of the potato to the fertile land that changed the agricultural economy for PEI. The potato reigned supreme for most of the 18th and 19th centuries, and PEI cattle were mostly used as dairy cows and oxen to perform the heavy lifting of clearing stumps and plowing fields.

It was not until the United Empire Loyalists, former American colonists loyal to the British Crown, fled the American colonies during the American Revolution for Prince Edward Island and other Canadian provinces. They brought beef cattle with them, continued to import them from the newly minted United States and England in the early 19th century, and most importantly, possessed the knowledge to raise cattle. As a result, PEI became an important exporter of dairy cows, beef cattle, and oxen to eastern Canada and the Maritimes in the early 19th century. Cattle played an important part in the agricultural history of PEI, but it was not until the end of World War II in 1945 that PEI Premier Walter Jones made the dairy and beef cattle export an important part of the island’s postwar recovery plan. Simply put, it worked as both industries contributed to the agricultural economy of PEI. The PEI Cattlemen’s Association was founded in 1976 to further support the industry, and today, known as the PEI Cattle Producers (PEICP), it continues the same mission of support and advocacy for its members. As of 2019, the beef and dairy industry on the island accounted for approximately $31 million dollars in revenue for the province, but the cattle population has declined on the island from a peak in 2007 at 16,000 head to approximately 7,000 head. Part of this dramatic shift was due to a BSE outbreak in 2007.

As part of the post-BSE recovery process, industry advocates, producers, the cattle association, and a reorganization of the island’s major beef packer, Atlantic Beef Products Inc., in 2009 resurrected the local beef industry on the island by highlighting the difference of PEI beef compared to the mainland. What is unique about PEI beef is also what makes the potatoes delicious, the bright red soil. Just like my earlier blog post about Hawaii’s volcanic soil that imparted a unique flavor to beef cattle raised on the Big Island, it is apparent that PEI’s red soil—loamy, sandy, rich in carbon, and most importantly, full of hematite (iron oxide)—transfers those properties to the pasture, feed or fodder, and ground potatoes and turnips that make up beef cattle feed on PEI. PEI Certified Beef believes that the soil and cool and salty ocean air provides their beef with a different flavor, and they equate it to what wine makers and enthusiasts refer to terroir, or in PEI’s case or marketing hashtag, #beefterroirPEI.

PEI Certified Beef is graded AAA and higher, it has a rich smell, a higher flavor pH level as evidenced by the redness of the meat, and a texture and flavor that was remarkably different than other products I have tasted in North America. The program is not breed specific, but from our travels across the island, I saw Herefords, Red Angus, Black Baldies, Limousines, and Black Angus grazing in the pasture. Like other premium programs, PEI Certified Beef also prides itself on its humane handling practices, cattle without added hormones, and hyper-local brand.

I was so impressed by the cow/calf operations we visited, the Orwell Corner Historic Village, the abundance and health of the red, rich soil, and brand messaging about PEI beef. I visited Sims Corner Steakhouse and Oyster Bar in downtown Charlottetown to try the program out for myself. I was also fortunate to have the opportunity to sit down with Chef Ross Munro, a consultant for Sims and one of the first proponents, chef partners, and eventual brand ambassador of PEI Certified Beef. One key to the program’s success since launching in 2009, according to Munro, was that the farmers and “producers are really talking with each other now more than they used to, and there’s more cooperation with the cattle producer association on the island than ever before.” They formed best practices and standards, shared knowledge, and worked together toward of common goal of sustaining and improving PEI’s beef industry. For Munro, what makes PEI Certified Beef unique compared to other products is the rich, iron content of the soil. As a result, as Munro stated, “you get a more sanguine taste and almost bloodiness” in the beef and “someone with a discerning palate will taste it for sure.” When I asked Munro what it meant to him to have a local program in a local restaurant, he thought it was phenomenal for the local economy and for restaurants such as Sims to feature a local program for tourist and local alike, but he was ecstatic to see consumers and end-users in “major metropolitan centers in Canada” starting to feature PEI beef.

The ribeye steak I enjoyed at Sims certainly checked all the boxes of a great beef program and was just as Chef Munro and others described. The biggest surprise for me was the “beefiness” of the steak and the unexpected notes of sirloin flavor in a ribeye steak. To be clear, it was not “irony” like beef liver. It was more subtle, provided complexity to the ribeye, and was distinctly different.

The beef producers on PEI are replicating what attracted their forefathers to plant the “spuds from the red mud” on PEI, and I imagine that as more attention is paid to soil health in our industry, others will start to follow suit in North America.

The Beef Industry on Prince Edward Island

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