Submitted by Rosemary Parkinson – (as a comment)
When one questions what will be done in this area to generate money re foreign reserves…how about export? As I said before, if we do things right, if we plan our agriculture correctly and show farmers, for instance, how to make their farms into productive eco-sustainable tourism facilities like say Goodfellow Farm in The Bahamas (just spent a week there and have done a study for IICA Barbados on this), we can earn those much needed US/Canadian/European euro etc. etc.
We could also export. There are niche markets to capture. My Tobagonian/Swedish friend Duane Dove owns a chocolate shop in Stockholm – and saw such a niche for instance. He bought an old cocoa farm in Tobago, revived it, and now it is a totally eco-sustainable tourism product where people visit and experience the cocoa story. He has also just produced in conjunction with a French chocolatier the first ever single bean (from his estate) from this part of the world – and it is amazing (he gave me a bar so I know). His chocolate is selling for a hefty price in Europe because it is made from organic chocolate and is a luxury item of perfection. But he did not just buy a farm, called himself a farmer whilst driving an escalade and covering himself in gold and designer clothes…he was out there with his staff learning, working, digging and planting. Now that is real different isn’t it? And he had to go to Europe to discover that farming in the Caribbean can be lucrative?? Man! Why are we so ignorant!!!
If we can perfect certain agricultural products in this same way, we too can make a huge name for ourselves. I say sugar cane for starters because this is what we do best here. Tours from cane to sugar to rum…and amazing products from all these sections that are so beautifully made and exotic they will fit right in to any niche market abroad. A pound of muscovado golden-brown sugar is like gold in health food and luxury stores around the world! Now take Golden Apples…we grow them here in abundance…does any one have any idea as to what we could do with these? Well…I do!
Farmers can be recognized as an important part of the society if only we would get rid of de dyamned slave connection to this most respected profession. That was hundred years ago and instead of carrying the burden on our shoulders, we should put it in a wheelbarrow and dump it as compost! We can start by encouraging agriculture in schools, and sending children to agricultural universities. Yes! Governments have to respect farmers…they do not need financial subsidies, what they require is a system of free import duties and knowledge from a good team of passionate agriculturists… Praedial larceny is a huge problem and easily rectified too with the co-operation of the powers that be.
You know what? Give me two years to rectify the chupedness that goes on, give me the tools to make this work, and I will show all disbelievers that food is the source of our maximum gain…imagine all the hotels/restaurants in this country using local produce…making gourmet dishes with what we consider to be staples – ‘foodies’ would flock from all over the world! Right now the only real cuisine is served up the traditional way in small local ‘cookshop-type’ facilities and whilst I take my hats off to the people who cook for us in this way and I support them all the way to food-heaven, I still feel that we are not showing how we can take this to level of gourmet. Are we so ashamed of our own foods? I have proven oft enough that those who visit us want local…! For crying out loud we have all the food networks scouring the islands looking for those special tastes but it does not always have to come across that we only serve these foods in “huts of bamboo” as they are portraying us! If we gave our local flavours the respect they deserve, if we had our local flavours displayed in a beautiful manner, if we could show how our local flavours are grown and the love and pride put into the growth, the cooking, the display on a plate.. we would be on our way. There is nothing more satisfying than to be able to tell someone from the US or Europe…this is our beef, grown right here on our land…taste the difference Sir and Madam, just taste it!!
There is much to be done and it could be easily done. I visit farmers all the time and I have heard their cries. And I am frankly exhausted at the ignorant lot of people we have become who would prefer to give a TGI Fridays (US processed food in a microwave), KFC, now Subway all our business and to go to a restaurant and have a US steak – if only people were aware of what a US steak contains imbeded in its meat, perhaps then they might consider eating our local beef. See the movie Food Inc. Read the books Fast Food Nation, Omnivore’s Dilemna, In Defense Of Food – there is proof that we are killing ourselves and our children by what we are importing.
As I said before it does not take a Rocket Scientist. And we have people like Mrs. Ena Harvey who is wealth of information, people like myself who are passionate about growing, processing, eating local who would be committed to improving this area and showing how to keep our foreign reserves’ bin filled to capacity through food…but???
Sometimes I tire of the fight. Because our Caribbean brains perhaps have been far too fried in US soya or corn oil, our stomachs are addicted to trans fats, the enhancers, the preservatives etc etc that are part and parcel of imported (particularly US imported) foods…We are drowning in a quagmire of shit peoples…we really are!
And just to answer the African snail thingie…why the hell can’t each individual in this country kill or bag every snail they see in their daily life instead of sitting munching on KFC and watching American Gansta movies as couch potatoes waiting for government to do the work. I am so tired of governments being blamed for the inefficiencies of us the people. We are the problem, not them. We all have known for eons of time that politicians love us during elections and hate us for the rest of the time they are in power. So why not elect them because we have a right to, ensure they do what is good for us because we can and ought to by insistence, and get up off our arses and work towards our country making it without losing ourselves to America and Europe – with the latter having ‘again’ written after it several times.
It is all up to us. And it is up to us because we can each make a difference. We cannot be that stuped not to see how. or at least I try not to believe it. It is getting more difficult each day, however!
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