Submitted by Rosemary Parkinson
From what I gather watching CBC, our Ministry of Agriculture stood their ground on the necessity to keep agriculture going in Barbados during the Budget debate last week in Parliament. I was so gratified. Kudos to them, I said. However, I did not hear anything about ‘safe’ agriculture. I was not re-assured that Barbados was to be mandated as an ‘organic’ agricultural island. Why, I just do not understand – particularly when another debate was all about tourism.
Has any member of our present government and the opposition for that matter realized that eco-sustainable tourism is the way of the future? And that eco-sustainable = eco-tourism = eco-food? Yes! organic healthy food (with emphasis on organic) is part of that whole tourism package of which Barbados being such a small island can in fact profit from. I know that our soil is in trouble already. I do not need to be a farmer or soil technician to know this. But are we helping it any by using pesticides and insecticides instead of nourishing it with goodness? For those who are interested, in a clip called ‘Food Matters’ (Parts 1 & 2) available on YouTube, a scientist gives the simple facts of how to nourish our soil. The same as the roots of our society have to be nourished, so do the roots of our soil and therefore the roots of our food. We are what we eat.
From this video clip I am posting (and the many others available on the internet) the bullying and danger of Monsanto is recorded from the inception of this corporation. But at last a group of organic farmers in the state of New York are challenging Monsanto and their products. They claim they will not be forced to use this company’s seeds. They do not want any part of Monsanto in the foods they grow. Now this is very brave of these guys considering the horror of what Monsanto has done to farmers who refuse to grow their seeds – also heavily documented.
Please watch the clip and the many posted on the internet before you go any further into this discussion cause what I am about to say depends on your understanding the real horrors and dangers of Monsanto. Then perhaps you might get what we, the people of Barbados, might be in (sorry! that should be already are in) for as long as products as Roundup are allowed through our ports and into our homes and farms.
I know that in the past BU and myself might have in your eyes ‘beaten this subject into a dead horse but perhaps we might be all dead horses and people if we do not take heed. For this is something else we need to be very cognizant of. And fast. I see GMO corn being grown in St. George…fields of it. How do I know? Because of how close the corn is planted. Not normal. GMO = Monsanto seeds.
Now, it does not take a rocket scientist to know that if there’s corn, there’s also other vegetables and/or fruit perhaps that have already graced our tables. Vegetables and fruits that we were led to believe were “we own ting”. But are from Monsanto seeds and are GMO seeds. And for those who do not understand GMO – IT MEANS GENETICALLY MODIFIED AND GENETICALLY MODIFIED INCLUDES PESTICDES/INSECTICIDES IMBEDDED IN THE CELLS OF THE SEEDS. And this fact could have already started to interfere with our general health on the island.
Another subject, of course, of the general debate – our health care bill. Is it that our doctors who have the ear of government’s Minister of Health with reference to health reforms have no idea or do not care about nutrition enough to place the dangers of Monsanto before the eyes of those who have the power to make this nation a completely healthy one? Or would that also not be good for those who make tons of money yearly on dishing out pharmaceuticals? Great health = little need for doctors = little need for pills, chemo, radiation, operations etc.
I do not want to believe this. I firmly believe there is room for all – natural foods, doctors, pharmaceuticals (in that order) to be part of our health. Again, we come back to “We are what we eat” – a fact that has been proven over and over again. One only has to listen to our centenarians. And we better do this fast or our next generation will not have one and the Governor General will no longer have the duty of visiting 100-year olds and bestowing praises on them.
Why does our government not do something great for the health of this country and ban all Monsanto products? And by this I mean all. This would be surely no big deal for them ‘cause it would certainly save on our loss of foreign exchange and we need that badly right? Or are we Bajans also being controlled by this greedy and dangerous large corporation? Do we the people not care about what is being put on our table? Or are we just using blinkers because we cannot be bothered?
Perhaps we will suddenly wake up and smell the GMO when our babies begin to be born looking like the ones in this video!
I urge, and hope you do too, the government of Barbados to do what is right for us, those who have given them the responsibility of keeping us the people safe.
Leave a Reply to Rosemary ParkinsonCancel reply