Senator Brathwaite underscores need for food security

By David Hinkson

Independent Senator Dr. Chelston Brathwaite says this country can no longer rely on the world to feed it and must get away from the false notion that Barbados did not have the capacity to feed itself.

Speaking in the Senate on a Private Members’ Resolution on food security that he brought to the Upper House,
Senator Brathwaite said, “For too many years we believed in a song that had among its verses, Barbados was too small to feed itself; the legacy of slavery meant we could
not feed ourselves and that we were better off selling our farm land for real estate, golf courses and other tourism development purposes.”

He outlined why food security was now more important than ever and why and how Barbados should go about it.

“All Barbadians have to work together to feed ourselves, which means that we cannot allow all of our fertile lands to be covered in river tamarinds and cow itch while we import millions of dollars in food. 

“The world’s most critical challenge now is to provide food for eight billion people and a shortage of available land may lead to food supply challenges, so every country needs to shore up its food supplies. We have also become too heavily-dependent on tourism and as a result we suffered significant financial burdens during the pandemic.

“We are also aware of the fact that
Barbados has one of the highest levels of chronic non-communicable diseases in the Americas and nutritional evidence has shown that more consumption of fish, ground provisions, fruit and vegetables can help combat this.”

Dr Brathwaite also noted that agriculture went beyond farming and covered many different sectors of the economy. He  outlined a few products that Barbados should promote extensively for local and export purposes, including Bajan cherry, Barbados grapefruit, sea island cotton, flying fish and blackbelly lamb.

He commended Government for its current efforts within the sector.

“The last time we saw innovation like what we are currently undertaking in terms of food security was in 1945 when the then Secretary of Agriculture passed a law stating that all local plantations had to allocate 12 per cent of their land to food production.” (DH)