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Food Security Project at Todds Plantation

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Submitted by Heather Cole

 

Heather Cole is asking for the public’s support to ensure the success of a food security project at the Todds Plantation.

Dear Prospective Investors and Members,

 

 

Although the conception of the People’s Agricultural and Business Co-op was done prior to COVID-19, we did not anticipate that our fears would have been realized months later when this global pandemic began to wreak havoc on the economy. COVID-19 has exposed the harsh reality that insufficient food is being grown on the island that Barbadians call home.

It has been said that Barbadians do not work together for economic gain. With this in mind, The People’s Agricultural and Business Co-operative Ltd. is seeking to become an agent of change in Barbados. It is providing an opportunity for ordinary Barbadians to economically come together through the formation of this co-op to grow food, produce by- products, engage in marine farming, grow agri- produce and engage in several other business activities…

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267 responses to “Food Security Project at Todds Plantation”

  1. john2 Avatar
    john2

    !0% Profit sharing for all workers over one year employment

    5-10% for bonuses for the workers (attendance, probuctivity etc) taken only from profits. No profits no bonuses.

    Limit to the amount of “management” and their salaries

    Limit on the amount for each investor. ( do not want the Williams group financing/owning not even 25% of the coop.

    $20bds per bajan at home and abroad .

    More info needed!

    $1000US (family of 4) to put my money where my mouth is / support the cause

  2. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @ John A

    Not just a 10 per cent bonus, but share-ownership and a workers’ representative on the board. By the way, what is going on with the the Clico plantations?

  3. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    John please respond to the email address.

  4. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    Dear All,

    First I want to thank the Blogmaster for having posted the Bid Announcement for the Clico Plantations several months ago. I would not have seen it otherwise, and for sharing our plans on the blog.

    Second, there is a lot at stake here. This Co-op is not a farmers co-op.
    It was set up to be owned by Barbadians in the middle and lower classes of Society. It is the means by which we can all start the process of economic enfranchisement and pursue generational wealth.

    We are not seeking any investment from the William’s ect. The people can make this effort work.

    If we do not get the funding, the land will be given to a Canadian company.

    I am therefore asking all Barbadians to join the Co-op and if you can also be an investor. We must invest in ourselves and future generations.

    We are seizing an opportunity to control some of the means of production. The time is ripe for this venture.

    We look forward to your support. Do not just wish us well as that may be the cause of our failure.

  5. John Avatar
    John

    What email address?

  6. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    Our contact email is pabcslbarbados@gmail.com

  7. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    John, it was at the top of the letter.

  8. John Avatar
    John

    What’s happening at Wakefield?

  9. Heather Avatar
    Heather

    @ Hal, Todd’s is one of the Clico Plantations.

  10. john2 Avatar
    john2

    HA

    2 not A

    10 to 20 % for the workers is enough IMO to pay good dividends, reinvest profits, and keep a little surplus (10% ?) for a rainy day (like the present covid situation ).

    Don’t see the need for workers ownership beyond that and their direct investments in a coop

  11. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    Everyone,

    Please share with your Network.

  12. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    @ John, I do not know.

  13. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    This blog seems to have blind sided the regular political commentators. Food for thought: It does not pit B’s against D’s or D’s against B’s where only Maloney benefits.
    This is about the people of Barbados and their future.

  14. David Avatar
    David

    Both main parties have neglected the agriculture sector for the more glamorous service sector.

  15. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Just considering, Heather. Gotta check out the details. I like to look before I leap.

  16. John Avatar
    John

    Wakefield is one of the CLICO plantations too as far as I know.

    Big project there too, lots of ploughing I heard.

    Curious to know what’s happening with that initiative.

    Saw alot of weeds recently when I passed but maybe the crops are hidden or I did not know where to look.

    Maybe I misheard.

    Unless you understand how, why and when the plantations got big you’ll never get agriculture back on the scale that existed.

    Subsistence farming will be the order of the day … like Haiti!!

    .. and there is no need for a plantation to do subsistence farming.

  17. John Avatar
    John

    The last time we were really self sufficient in food was probably during WWII.

    Integration of sugar cane with food production was a done deal, a known method of weed control.

    No herbicides/weedicides needed.

    We’ve got a few thousand acres in St. John which were in sugar rotated with food crops but that worked only because of steam factories and the ability to mill the volume of cane produced.

    Not much land is needed for food production but crop rotation and weed control is important I have always heard.

  18. John Avatar
    John

    BTW, Todds gets its name from John Todd the Elder, a Quaker.

    Believe he was an ancestor of mine if my genealogy is right.

    In his 1686 will, he specified his house was to continue to be used for church services, ie, Todds was a meeting room for Quakers in the 17th century.

    Lot’s of history … every square inch of Barbados is a world heritage site.

    So how do you develop our history to provide tourist attractions and produce food and be financially sound?

    Get the linkages right and we just might also become as food secure as we were in WWII, have productive lands and also be a tourist atraction.

    We need the land to function agriculturally once more but it seems that is not financial.

    … but, it could be an economic part of an overall effort which is financial.

  19. John Avatar
    John

    Did you know there was a hotel near to Todds and Wakefield?

    Another CLICO debacle!!

    All part of O$A’s CSME plan.

    Really just a bunch of crooks.

    https://www.prestigeproperty.co.uk/24-bed-hotel-wakefield-saint-john-barbados-194482

  20. john2 Avatar
    john2

    @ JOHN

    CAN YOU FOR ONCE SHUT UP? NO ONE IS INTEERESTED IN ALL THE SHIT!

  21. John Avatar
    John

    I enjoy it!!

  22. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ Hearher at 10 :23 AM

    Food security is not a bone of contention between the political parties. It is an economic question that can only be resolved by those with land. It does not need a political input.

  23. john2 Avatar
    john2

    Read what she said again @VC

  24. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    @ Donna. Email me.

  25. john2 Avatar
    john2

    DONNA

    If you not prepared to leap yet how about taking two small steps in support of a local sister? $20/step and pass it on to a few of your friends. You can leap later if you decide to then.

  26. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    John 2 we are actually on the same page.

  27. John Avatar
    John

    Just sharing a bit of the wealth of knowledge I have gained over the years.

    A pleasure.

  28. GP Avatar
    GP

    RE @ JOHN
    CAN YOU FOR ONCE SHUT UP? NO ONE IS INTERESTED IN ALL THE SHIT!

    I AM VERY INTERESTED JOHN, SO KEEP GOING.
    IT IS ACTUALLY PART OF OUR HISTORY AND HERITAGE THAT WE WERE NEVER TAUGHT,
    COLIN HUDSON USED TO TALK ABOUT QUAKERS ON THE STOP AND STARE SUNDAY MORNING WALKS

  29. john2 Avatar
    john2

    HC

    Yes
    But we also need to know we are not providing you with a mercedes like a “mini clico.

    Donna as BU representative to sit on the advisory board . lol

  30. john2 Avatar
    john2

    HC

    What are the differences between a member and and investor

  31. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    John if you are recommending Donna to be on the board, she must respond soon the AGM is to be held soon.

  32. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    The History of the place is intriguing. I would definitely like to hear about it.

  33. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ Heather Cole:

    (Quote):
    It is providing an opportunity for ordinary Barbadians to economically come together through the formation of this co-op to grow food, produce by- products, engage in marine farming, grow agri- produce and engage in several other business activities…(Unquote).
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Does this mission include the revival of the proposal for an agro-processing plant?

    If ‘Necessity’ is the mother of invention then the threat of ‘Starvation’ must be the father to survival.

    Brother Hants, the BU soothsayer of agriculture, your ship of predictions has arrived in the harbour, at last!

  34. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    Miller, we intend to do agro processing and marine farming. It has always baffled me why 166sq MLS with the sea surrounding it created a dependence on salted cod fish from Canada.

  35. John Avatar
    John

    Todd’s, St. John & St. George
    1674 1) Todd, 2) Estwick snr
    1680 Estwick snr. – see Bath, Samuel Husbands 108 ac
    1680 John Todd, 103½ ac, St. John
    1698 Joseph Todd bounder on Henley
    1721 Jones & Battyn, Husbands
    1732 Will 35/29
    Henry Jones of St. John. Bequeaths 1) “Todd’s” pltn in St. John to son Henry Jones, 2) “Husbands” pltn (now Belle Farm?) in St. George & St. John to son George Jones

    1742 93/13 Henry Jones of St. John by his will (1732) bequeaths Todds pltn to his son Henry Jones and Husbands pltn to his son George Jones. Both died without issue and both pltns became the property of their brother, Benjamin Jones, who merged the 2 pltns into a single unit

    1778 147/354 Benjamin Jones of St. John conveys pltn to son Robert Burnett Jones under certain obligations to his brothers, 170 ac, St. John & St. George
    Bounders: Rebecca Fee, John Miller, John Miller snr, Woodland, Eyare Walcott (Green’s), Thomas Edey (Ellesmere?), Joseph Miller, dec’d (Bowmanston?), Gedney Clarke (Henley), Henry Prate, dec’d
    62 slaves
    Robert Burnett Jones was to pay each of his younger brothers £2000. Two of them named Benjamin Todd Jones and Thomas Battyn Jones

    1791 198/211 Thomas Battyn Jones acknowledges receiving £2000 from brother Robert Burnett Jones in keeping with the terms of the conveyance of 1778

    1794 201/254 Robert Burnett Jones of St. John, barrister-at-law and Attorney General, sells to John Nurse of St. Philip and his wife Elizabeth Hannah Nurse for £14,000, 1) 60 ac and 50 slaves in St. Philip (The Nursery?), 2) Todd’s pltn, 162 ac, St. John & St. George, 85 slaves
    Bounders of 2): Henley, Cherry Grove, Rachel Leslie, Rebecca Fee, dec’d, Hon. Joshua Steele (Kendal), Robert John Padmore;s pltn called “Edeys” (Ellsmere), John G. Birney Miller, dec’d, Hon. Benjamin Gittens, dec’d (Greens), Samuel Boxhill, dec’d, Benjamin Collins (Woodland)

    1816 John Henry Nurse
    1825 John Henry Nurse – Attorney William Sharp
    1847 196 ac in St. John
    1842–9 Hon. J.H. Nurse (254 in ’42) 255
    1850 58 ac. St. George
    1947, 48, 50 Thomas Nurse 255
    1854 Hon. J.H. Nurse 255
    1858–07 Thomas Nurse, dec’d, M.D. – BMHS 32:49 (475 in ’03–’07)? 275
    1859 Absentee
    1897–1910 Chancery Court Forte v Forte et al
    1912–14 Capt. N. Forte 256
    1917 11 Dec Pur.: G.E. Sealy £22,000 293
    1921 G.E. Sealy 256
    1921–67 BMHS 32:131
    1929 John D. Chandler 296
    with LEMON ARBOR, BELLE FARM, AIRY HALL
    1934–35 John D. Chandler 488
    1937 John D. Chandler (under Lemon Arbor) 494
    1951 & 57/8 Todds Estates Ltd
    1970 Todds Estates Ltd 400

  36. John Avatar
    John

    Extract from Queree papers made into digital form through the efforts of Richard Goddard.

  37. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    John2.
    Membership is $25.00. Each member must also purchase at $50.00 each in preferred and ordinary shares. This is similar to the credit union.
    Any member Who goes beyond this investment in shares would be an “investor.”
    However, investors will normally be persons who bring in greater amounts to the project but do not want to become a member.
    If RiRi wanted to invest she would be welcomed!

  38. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    @John does 400 mean 400 acres? Todd’s is less than 300 acres now.

  39. John Avatar
    John

    Starts as a small plantation, 103.5 acres.

    John Todd the Elder was a Quaker.

    Two of his daughters married into the Jones and Battyn families.

    Todds becomes Jones & Battyn on the 17222 Mayo map, same family ownership.

    The same early Quaker families were associated with Todds for over a century.

    We know for example that Benjamin Todd Jones was a Quaker because he is buried in the Quaker Burying Yard next door to St. Philip’s Church.

    He died in 1794.

    Ownership patterns start changing in the late 1700’s with the destruction of the economy in St. Domingue and the increase in sugar prices.

    Quakers are getting out of sugar for whatever reasons, slavery was not acceptable or other activities made more economic long term sense..

    You will find the abolitionists were predominately Quaker and they were well represented in the industrial revolution.

    Their interests become widespread as their success in business propels them into many and varied activities..

    For example one branch of the Jones family emigrated to Pennsylvania in the 1680’s.

    I would imagine that family was into trade and industry on a far larger scale than anything that the Barbados branch would have been involved with.

    From the 1790’s sugar prices ensure sugar is profitable for a while.

    Quakers are at the forefront looking to the abolition of the slave trade,

    This happens in 1807.

    Barbados was not really affected because 94% of the slave population were born here by that time.

    The Quaker influence wanes from about 1760 onwards as many leave for greener pastures and families die out.

    The influence of the Anglican Church increases in Barbados.

    You will find more and more slaves and free people of colour being baptised into the Anglican Church by the late 1700’s.

    In 1824 the Anglican Church receives its first Bishop.

    Barbados after 1800 is quite different religiously than it was before 1800.

  40. John Avatar
    John

    With the advent of steam and availability of water from deep wells, factories appear.

    Milling capacity increases but to get this to happen capital is required.

    Plantations go the CO-OP way and buy shares in “Cooperative Factories” in the early 1900’s.

    Families amalgamated land holdings to ensure factories are assured of a constant supply of cane to grind commensurate with the milling capacity available.

    Todds Estates Ltd. was formed in 1943 by the Chandler family.

    It is an amalgamation of Todds and Lemon Arbor.

    Todds was then made up of ~277 acres of the original plantations and ~19 acres added by various purchases.

    Lemon Arbor was made up of ~189 acres including a small plantation called Airy Hill ~7 Acres.

    In 1943 WWII is at its zenith and sugar is in demand … its price is high.

    After the war, most of the sugar producing capacity in the world had been destroyed so prices remained high.

    Boom time for Barbados.

    Output through expanded milling capacity and other technologies reaches 200K tons in the late 1950’s.

    At the end of slavery it was 1/20’th that amount, about 10K tons.

  41. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    No advisory board for me, thanks but after I check this thing out and deem it viable I would be willing to be a foot soldier.

    But Heather, my son said up to this week that I am too cautious so I am known to take long looks. I will not be rushed.

    Please understand that when one finally hears of an attempt to actually do something big one has to recover from the shock.

  42. John Avatar
    John

    Todds increased in size from 103.5 acres in the 1680’s to 277 acres in 1943.

    In 1943, Todds, like most large plantations is an amalgam of small plantations gathered together over time for whatever reason, marriage, purchase … or whatever.

    Small is beautiful!!

    Small matches limited milling capacity which is determined by access to capital.

  43. John Avatar
    John

    It makes more sense to prove you can farm before you run about trying to attract finance!!

  44. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Agro-processing piques my interest for sure.

  45. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Plenty of people out there who can farm. I expect Heather has some of them in the mix.

  46. Heather Cole Avatar
    Heather Cole

    There are many persons in Barbados with the knowledge of farming. We have already thought about this though. However there is nothing wrong with having vision that other people with technical expertise can execute.

  47. Pachamama Avatar
    Pachamama

    Heather

    You must start with a radical land reform in Barbados. There can never be adequate national food production systems until the land reform promised since the end of slavery is delivered to ordinary people. Certainly, you do not expect Bajans to get accustomed to wukking land that is not theirs.

    And the structuring of food production units as cooperatives will not work either. Don’t you know that American foreign policy is predicated on the notion that their farmers must be the ones to feed us by way of fanciful-looking supermarkets et al, couples with the economic flows thusly generated. Do you think that that development arc happened by accident?

    So, you not only have a local land distribution problem which will long haunt us but a geo-political one as well. Do tell us how we are to approach squaring this vicious circle.

  48. john2 Avatar
    john2

    Pacha

    $10 per month for the rest of the year cant “brek yuh”

    No goverment involved
    no bank involved

    or will we wait until “cow’ take over or the ones from the middle east and then complain about everybody else improving except the blacks?

  49. John Avatar
    John

    One acre of land will produce up to 3,500 yam plants.

    That could be 10 tonnes of yams depending on yield.

    Not alot of land is required to achieve food security.

  50. john2 Avatar
    john2

    Maloney
    leasing and organic farming about 100 acres over there on Easyhall close to Hackelton’s cliff. why cant we? guess who / color of the workers.

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