est. 2007

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Food Security: Eat the Cellphone

There is a popular saying “God helps those who help themselves“. The pandemic has been with us almost 2 years, we know any pandemic is likely to disrupt the global supply chain. We know Barbados is a significant importer of food, over the years successive governments have paid lip service to prioritizing food security. It…

There is a popular saying “God helps those who help themselves“. The pandemic has been with us almost 2 years, we know any pandemic is likely to disrupt the global supply chain. We know Barbados is a significant importer of food, over the years successive governments have paid lip service to prioritizing food security. It is cheaper to import than produce in Barbados they say – what about forming a strategic relationship with other islands? What is the purpose of Caricom?

The following was sent to the blogmaster with the following question. The old people have another saying – “you have made your bed and will have to lie on it”.

David you want a better reason why we should have introduced a greenhouse project over a year ago than this?

122 responses to “Food Security: Eat the Cellphone”

  1. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    This coordination and linkages thing has been discussed since Adam was a lad, David.

    I don’t know why it has proven so hard to do on a damn 2×3 island of less than 300,000 people.

    But in the meantime I stopped de lotta long talking and got to acting. The price of vegetables and fruit does not affect me.

    Dame Bajans is in a different place but she has shown how Bajans were in the days when she lived here. She did not learn it in Canada.

    A read of Cynthia Wilson’s Whispering of the Trees reveals that it was the norm here at the time to attempt self-sufficiency.

  2. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Correction- fewer than 300,000 people.

  3. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ David

    Everyone can find a reason why we can’t do better. I would like those in power to research the roof top gardens of Monaco and see how much food can be produced from small areas.

  4. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Damn lotta excuses!

  5. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    They have been making excuses AND TELLING LIES FOR YEARS….importing poison to put in the people’s bodies and cause NCDs HAVE bribes ATTACHED…..growing food has none…they have no control when farmers take their produce to market, some of the corrupt current and former bribetaking ministers have shares in supermakets.

    Lawson…they don’t like fruits NOR WATER…to their own detriment because lack of both causes BAD HEALTH..

  6. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    @ Donna,
    Why are your countrymen/women unwilling to provide for themselves. Why the reticence to grow their own food? I am seriously puzzled. Is it time to invite the Guyanese back? We sure could do with some assistance.

  7. John2 Avatar
    John2

    John A

    Why those in power? Why not the ones that are complaining about the High food prices.?

    Those in power bread is already buttered which ever way the economy goes

    Where are the younger Cuhdear BAjans, Donnas and Dame bajans?

    It is not only government own land that is run way. There are a lot of home plots that were in production years ago that are now out of production

    @ Dame Bajan

    This is the first year I do not have pumpkins to give away . I only got two this year – never had less than 10
    So at least here on BU , from Barbados, Georgia to Canada we had a reduction in pumpkins this year

  8. John A Avatar
    John A

    @ John 2

    Don’t get flustered I am not speaking specifically to your party when I say those in power. It is simply a generic term that speaks to ALL ruling parties over the years.

  9. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    TLSN,

    Many of us just fell out of the hardworking habits of our grandparents. We came to expect an easier life with heaps more leisure time. We thought we had “arrived” long before the journey was completed. We equate agriculture with hard physical labour and we have no respect for it.

    Girls like sweet skin doctors and lawyers, not burnt black farmers.

    In short, we turn foolish!

    There is a three year old boy of Guyanese descent who lives in my gap. His grandfather is a nightwatchman. The grandfather told me that by the time he reaches home on mornings the little boy tells him, “Nothing to do, Grandfather! I wet everything already!”

    An irrigation engineer for the BADMC told me that once he and his uniformed workers went to Spring Hall Land Lease Project in St. Lucy to work on the irrigation system.

    When they announced themselves, “Irrigation Department!” all the farm workers disappeared. They thought they had said, “Immigration Department.”

    The workers were all undocumented Guyanese.

    I think he made that joke up but not the part about them being Guyanese.

    The Guyanese neighbour gives me tips on gardening and my Rasta cousin helper also has a Guyanese farmer from whom he has learnt much.

    Yes, it was a big mistake getting rid of the Guyanese!

    But with all the new methods of farming now available I think there could be a shift in attitudes coming.

    The new technology is pretty cool and not labour intensive.

    I hope the young, stylish, female Chief Agricultural Officer will be known by her fruits and vegetables. lol.

  10. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ David

    I believe it was sometime during 2007 when Owen Arthur suggested people should engage in ‘back yard gardening.’

    And, I also remember him being ridiculed for his suggestion, by the opposing party and its ‘regular callers’ to the ‘call-in-programmes.’

  11. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Not an Owen fan but I remember that too.

    The idea of backyard gardening should never be ridiculed but it should also be accompanied by a national policy, plan and facilitation effort by Government.

    Maybe that was the reason for the ridicule even though those who laughed were themselves deserving of same for their neglect of agricultural concerns.

  12. John2 Avatar
    John2

    A

    The questions still remain

    Why depend on government from the cradle to the grave?

    Ask Donna how much help / input she had from any government member

  13. TLSN Avatar
    TLSN

    @ Donna,
    If the locals do not have the inclination to toil the soil or maintain their own garden plots then the government should look at bringing in those same Guyanese who they asked to leave.

    We cannot be importing our food stock indefinitely.

    Permaculture has been in fashion for sometime. The UK inner cities have been growing food in warehouses under LED lights for a number of years.

    For our own food security it would make sense for this inept government to import Labour from Guyana or St Vincent and kick start our agricultural industry before the population dies of hunger.

  14. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    No, that was not the reason for the ridicule.

    The consensus view was Arthur wanted people to return to the days of working on plantations.

  15. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Artax,

    How does backyard gardening equate to working on Massa plantation??????

    SMH. Partisan politics really turns people foolish.

    I have a farmer cousin who used to be an aircraft engineer. A year or so ago, his helper was found dead in suspicious circumstances.

    “He was the only reliable help I had!” was the lament.

    My cousin ain’t no massa.

    I had another cousin who returned from England with enough money to buy a small plantation.

    His niece now struggles to work without reliable help.

    No massa there either.

    Many black Barbadians have farms and no reliable help.

    Why is massa so deeply entrenched in our brains that we cannot see straight?

    What did those politicians gain by exploiting that?

    Cutting off nose to spite their own features!

  16. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    John 2,

    My garden is a little, not for profit endeavour.

    A national thrust by government would be helpful for professional farmers, though I do believe they could do better, even without it.

  17. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    Donna
    agriculture = sugar cane and sugar cane = slavery. Then agriculture = ????
    The island has more respect for those who sell food, than those who produce it.
    Massa is a boss/superior who provides low paying jobs w/o benefits, particularly if that job includes working in agriculture. Massa en gotta be white? Nor male.

  18. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    NO,

    So why work for a pittance selling cheap crap on Swan Street for Indians and Syrians?

    Then you take the pittance and try to buy expensive food at the supermarket.

    And complain yuh hungry?

  19. John2 Avatar
    John2

    I don’t know for sure but I am assuming ur plot is comparable to roof top farming

  20. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    I was rendering my take on “consensus view”
    No opinion of why others do the work they do.

  21. John2 Avatar
    John2

    And I still prefer to give away excess than sell

    I don’t know about the Culture in Monaco

  22. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    Donna September 9, 2021 10:49 AM #: “SMH. Partisan politics really turns people foolish.”

    @ Donna

    I’m sure you’ve read the shiite the ‘resident DLP yard-fowl’ posts to BU, in her efforts to defend the DEMS.

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    NorthernObserver September 9, 2021 11:03 AM #: “The island has more respect for those who sell food, than those who produce it.”

    @ NO

    Yeah……. a very good observation.

    If I try to raise a few pigs, my neighbours would call the health inspectors, even although I may have controlled the usual accompanying scent.

    However, every Saturday morning they’ll form long queues at another neighbour’s house to buy souse.

  23. David Avatar
    David

    @Artax

    The blogmaster recalls the slogan crime and violence ridiculed as well. Where does this leave us?

  24. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    If tomatoes at $40.00/lb does not create SE desire to have backyard gardens, then nothing will.

  25. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ David

    Yes, “the crime and violence slogan” was subjected to much ridicule as well…….. perhaps when interpreted within the ‘political context and environment’ at time the statement was made.
    Remember, while ‘kitchen gardening’ was Arthur’s response to escalating local and imported food prices………’crime and violence was Thompson’s mantra during the 1999 general election campaign.
    Although some people sought to deem Thompson as being ‘prophetic,’ I’m sure you’ll agree neither successive BLP and DLP administrations failed to proactively address the crime situation……… preferring instead to blame each other for its increase.

    There was also a similar occurrence when Arthur was accused of allowing too many Guyanese to enter and work in Barbados, which was not only a ‘hot topic’ on the call-in-programmes, but politicized during the 2008 election campaign as well.

  26. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Artax,

    I smell pig shit occasionally up here. Good thing I did not even seek to find the source. My chicken rearing cousin recently told me she also raises pigs. I used to buy pudding and souse from her before I started making my own.

    It is only occasionally that I get the scent. I don’t think I could bear it if it was constant, to be honest.

    John 2,

    Not sure what you mean wrt the comparison with rooftop gardening. Do you mean that I am only attempting to supply what I need for myself?

  27. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    Partisan politics! Bah humbug!

  28. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @Donna September 8, 2021 6:55 AM “Tomatoes can be grown in hanging baskets, people! Grow your own! Are people buying the tomatoes? I ain’t.”

    I’ve grown two sets of plum tomatoes for the year. I still have a couple of old fashioned small tomato vines.

    For lunch today, breadfruit from a dear friend, my own home grown spinach, a little stewed Bajan chicken, with some of my own tomatoes added, and onions from a Bajan farmer And I won’t lie an imported Lindt chocolate which was given to me by a friend. And a glass of tap water.

    I’ve discovered that cooked breadfruit last longer in the fridge that uncooked. So I have been cooking them as soon as received and then I work my way through.

  29. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @Artax September 8, 2021 9:32 AM “At some stores, for example, a Samsung S10+ costs $2,400 and some iPhones, over $6,000”

    Most I’ve ever paid for a phone is $200 BDS. That must mean I am cheap or broke or both.Got a “better” one as a Christmas gift and after 18 months sold the “old” one for $100 BDS, gave Little Johnny $50 for arranging the sale.

    That must mean I am cheap or broke or both.

  30. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @David September 8, 2021 9:35 AM “The cost of a high in cellphone is one off BUT there is the running cost be it pre or post packages.”

    True. $72 per month for WiFi at home. $32 per month for landline. $10 per month or less for pre-paid. I don’t use my phone much outside of the house. Family and friends know if there is an emergency, call the ambulance, fire service or police. Don’t call me to chat if I am not at home. Fixed rate landlines are for chatting.

  31. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    @Artax September 8, 2021 10:02 AM “Anyhow, go into any branch of Court’s and see for yourself.”

    I just checked the aforementioned store’s online catalog and the cheapest cell phone is $299.99 BDS and the most expensive $3699.99 BDS but these are not iPhones.

  32. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    Okras, spinach, and cassava and flavor peppers producing right now. Sweet potatoes soon. Pears/avocados in exactly 5 weeks. Yams by Christmas. The usual herbs, leaf garlic, sweet basil, rosemary.

  33. Cuhdear Bajan Avatar
    Cuhdear Bajan

    I used my last frozen cassava this week. I still have some dried cassava left from last season, and I’ve already begun harvesting this season’s, so I have cassava in the freezer, the larder or the land 12 months per year.

  34. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    All the good stuff!

  35. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-prepares-to-launch-digital-id-program-and-here-s-how-it-works-1.5577757

  36. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    Keep playing games with and depending on Mia and her social partnership of crooks and thieves with PENDING PERMANENT FOOD SHORTAGES LOOMING….

    don’t cut these criminals out of your Black lives PERMANENTLY and see what happens…

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/britain-will-now-see-permanent-food-shortages-and-it-s-going-to-get-worse/ar-AAOi7Cp?ocid=msedgntp

  37. WURA-WAR-on-U Avatar
    WURA-WAR-on-U

    Get out of their nasty slave system to save yourselves…collapse it AROUND THEM..

  38. Artax Avatar
    Artax

    @ David

    See wuh I tell yuh?

    It only took a bit longer than I thought, but we’re getting there.

  39. David Avatar
    David

    Organic gardening on the rooftops of Monaco

    Chickens roaming amok on Monaco’s rooftops? This, along with the gardening of vegetables, is what happens in one neighbourhood that includes some of the world’s most expensive apartments. The setup is proof that gardening can be done almost anywhere — and even if you happen to live an urban, luxurious city. The trend of urban gardening has been reclaiming concrete-covered space in the microstate on the French Riviera.

    The Terre de Monaco project is the brainchild of ex-model Jessica Sbaraglia. Watch Jessica tell her inspiring story about developing five urban gardens among the world’s most expensive apartments by clicking on the video above.

    https://www.euronews.com/green/2018/06/15/organic-gardening-on-the-rooftops-of-monaco

  40. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    The use of plastic bottles to make bricks is CREATIVE. The lady has no database; that was a quick Google search in response to William’s comment to appear woke. 🤣🤣🤣

  41. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    Right…you really think i will post anything else for yall to set ya eyes on it…and alert ya fellow minority criminals to plot to tief it…now ya got database on ya mind, let it stay there……why don’t yall come and take…..that database will help DESTROY YOU…

    BU shut down the thread, but all i will do is take ALL THE INFORMATION DIRECTLY TO THE CONTINENT…I am set up like that….ya can try to interfere with that too..

    so when the food shortage starts, and ya can’t rip off the treasury to the tune of 800 million dollars a year to import garbage to give the populaton NCDs, what are yall gonna do…..ya better send that money to the continent if ya want to eat…or the people will grow their own food and shut you down anyway….either way…all the corrupt will lose..

  42. Enuff Avatar
    Enuff

    Blah, blah,blah as usual. You have a nice day. I have far more better things to do.🖐🏾

  43. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    you have a good day too…don’t fill ya soup bowl with too much tears….save some for what’s coming next…

  44. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    The people on social media are talking about China flying prisoners to Barbados to work on Sam Lord’s castle.. and locals can’t get any work….it’s been a couple years that information floated around that the then government TIEF the money China provided to rebuild the hotel…in other words…check with ya THIEVING misLEADERS….if they stole the people’s money, as they are always known to do, it will DEPRIVE the local population of work and other opportunities as usual..China has a right to do as they want if yall scam artists stole the money THEY LOANED YOU.

    again the people are WARNED to.get out of their sLAVE system and ya will not have to worry about that…

  45. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David BU:

    Blogmaster, don’t you think the current pandemic time is ‘ripe’ for the current BLP to implement a Fat Tax on Fast Food outlets in its next Budget?

    Bajans should not complain if they are asked to pay an additional 5 or 10% at the fast food outlets for their convenience made of blatant ‘bloating’ laziness.

    Even our Donna and the simple Simon the Cuhdear Bajan should support such an imposition in order to preach what they claim to practise.

    How else is the government going to find the money to meet its commitments to subsidize the rising cost of imported food?

    In addition to subsidizing the hormone-laced chicken industry what about helping the indigenous black belly sheep farmers to help reduce the importation of frozen old sheep meat from NZ?

    When is the government going to initiate the proposal to extract more fish (healthy protein) from the Atlantic Ocean which forms part of the country’s offshore economic zone?

  46. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    In a pandemic governments maybe tempted to introduce different policies. Being a leader of a country canno be an easy task made more difficult in a pandemic. A fat tax will be unpopular in a country suffering an obesity problem and high occurrence of NCDs. Pick sense from the comment.

  47. Miller Avatar
    Miller

    @ David September 10, 2021 9:24 AM

    What’s the sense of having a new republic looking towards a brighter future when it is saddled with a ‘growing grey’ population and beset by a sickly workforce along with a large segment of its juvenile population considered physically inactive?

    Please note that the proposed imposition- whether styled as “FAT” or ‘Health Improvement’- would not be on Food per se but on ‘Convenience’ and a lifestyle of Luxury since it would have to apply to all restaurants meeting a specified threshold level of sales.

    Where is the Treasury going to get the money from to pay for the promised animal feed subsidies along with the massive costs being incurred in the fight against the ongoing pandemic and the burgeoning epidemic of NCDs ?

    By way of a cut back in the public sector payroll costs?

    The old-time idiom that “an ounce of prevention is worth [more than] a pound of cure” should be seen as the vaccine against obesity and NCDs.

  48. WURA-War-on-U Avatar
    WURA-War-on-U

    I have even seen rooftop gardening in Canada…US..

    Miller..it’s over, they have wasted way too much time…decades…and the PEOPLE’S BILLIONS of dollars…it’s over for them…done…they are now clutching at straws, but myself and others are more than happy to and capable of SNATCHING those straws away and let them ALL drown.

    rope would be preferable…but whichever comes first…gone is gone..

  49. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    Can you name a single government on the planet that will impose measures to counter a trend of accessing fast foods to satisfy the convenience of lifestyle months before a general election?

  50. Donna Avatar
    Donna

    I post the good and bad about myself. By now people should know that I don’t CLAIM to do anything I don’t actually practise.

    For instance, I can tell you I did not always think on these things and practise them. I should have started looong before I did.

    I too had a hard start. I was one of those who made things harder than they were.

    Cuhdear Bajan made me envious enough that I could not bear her tales any more.

    You can give her the credit for kicking me in the lazy butt.

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