“Anybody interested in solving, rather than profiting from, the problems of food production and distribution will see that in the long run, the safest food supply is a local food supply, not a supply that is dependent on a global economy. Nations and regions within nations must be left free and should be encouraged to develop the local food economies that best suit local needs and local conditions” – Wendell Berry, American novelist, environmental activist, and farmer.
The ongoing cutting up of good arable land, especially in the most fertile valley and surrounding areas of the island is likely to come back and haunt present and future generations of Barbadians.
Possible ensuing results will be: the destruction of the livelihoods of local farmers; the upkeep and under-pinning of the livelihoods of foreign farmers; an increase in the costs and quantities of imported food items; an increase in the consumption of unhealthy processed, preserved, and frozen foods; an increase in the cases of non-communicable diseases; the unnecessary expenditure of scarce foreign currency for imported food items; increasing difficulty in the implementation of import substitution for exotic food items; and increasing difficulty in achieving adequate levels of food security and food sovereignty.
From the days of the early British settlers, the entire St George Valley and its environs was an expanse of agricultural land with numerous plantations.
If the authorities wish to dig up most of the available arable soil for housing developments, and less of the marginal rab land, then certain consequences will ensue.
Housing developers have not yet been encouraged to move away from single-storey projects and construct multi-storey buildings.
Barbados has a limited amount of land space that has not been efficiently and effectively regulated, managed and exploited.
The idea that every Barbadian should have a piece of the Rock is slowly becoming a fading fancy.
Our land use policy has got to be a more balanced document catering to the various categories of interests, among which are agricultural, residential housing, commercial and industrial properties, recreational spaces and others.
In all of these, our national development plans must acknowledge an order of priorities.
Based on global trends such as climate change, supply chains, international transportation and related issues, then food security and food sovereignty will have to be positioned high on our totem pole.
Millennium Development Goal Number 1 was written: “To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger”.
This objective was to be achieved by the year 2015.
Can it be said that Barbadians have sufficiently contributed to the eradication of poverty and hunger?
There can be no better idea than the one held by Ron Finley, an American advocate and enthusiast for urban gardening who said, “Growing your own food is like printing your own money.”
Whatever the ideas and priorities, the growing and consumption of local foods must be a matter of high importance for Barbadians.
Michael Ray
