POINT BLANK: Can’t We Feed Ourselves?
Is Agriculture In The Virgin Islands a Dream Deferred?
By Winston Nugent
W. Nugent
Some day ago I asked Manjack, a fellow co-worker of mine when we were in Freedom City, Frederiksted, eating fungi and salt-fish with okra on the side, why is it that we in this Territory are so nonchalant about the global food crisis? He said to me, “That’s the way we are about everything.”
The fact that we grow no significant food to supplement our consumptions, left me wondering, is it because we are reliant on the United States that we are beyond starvation?
I thought with the pending hope of producing a constitution of our own, the notion of “self-reliance’ would have been a consciousness implanted within our psychic. In this case, it seems like a passing black cloud.
It is said that the global food crisis has reached the U.S. as big retailers began rationing sales of rice in response to bulk purchases by customers alarmed by rocketing prices of staple food.
Has any one of us gone shopping to any of our local supermarkets lately and shocked to see the kind of prices that we are now paying for food. And yet, we act like it’s nothing.
I read recently, where beginning this year, rice producing countries have imposed limits on exports to keep domestic prices down. What are WE doing? In Haiti, looting and rioting left at least six people dead and forced the resignation of the Prime Minister. In Guyana, it is said that an 80% rise in the price of rice and a 50% increase in the cost of chicken triggered protests and a strike by sugarcane workers.
It would be interesting to see if the Virgin Islands Bureau of Economic Research should conduct a survey in our local shops and supermarkets; what kind of an increase they would observe since this food crisis started?
As much as we are so dependent on the importation of our basic food commodities in these Virgin Islands, for us to sit and stare up in the sky, should be a baffling reality for us to face.
Where some governments are urging people to cultivate idle land in preparation, we somehow don’t see the impetus of this advice. In one report, it is said the amount of U.S. grains currently stored for following seasons were the lowest on record, relative to consumption.
Why am I so concerned? Why shouldn’t I do like some of us, bask in the rays of the sun, dance and prance and gobble up the rest of the food and forget about friends, neighbors and other family members? Well, I am benevolent, a social creature, a believer in the grassroots way of life. Moreover, I am no procrastinator, for as it is stated without reservation, a new crisis is emerging, a global food catastrophe that will reach further and be more crippling than anything the world has ever seen.
This might sound pessimistic, but according to Donald Coxe, a global portfolio strategist, the sharp rise in raw food prices in the past year will intensify over the next few years amid increased demand for meat and dairy products from the growing middle classes of countries such as China and India as well as heavy demand from the bio-fuel industries.
I need say no more Virgin Islanders!
I enjoyed reading this article.
I believe that the Virgin Islands is limited by the amount of agricultural land, however we can use what we have to specialize in a few important crops. For example, we could plant corn to supply the corn meal, sweeteners, tortilla, popcorn, animal feed and vitamin C that we need for local cosumption. In another case, we can plant provisions such as potato and sweet potato to supply our needs. With those two groups of crops, we could make a substantial reduction in the money we spend in the groceries; if we do not follow state-side market prices (as they do for gas even though it is produced on STX). Locally produced meat would also be cheaper because we could use the locally grown corn as feed. OK yall, I know it is just a dream! Let me wake up.
We perfer to spend $250 million dollars on rum, not food.
What happened to the millions we have given to Agriculture in addition to acres of land for the growing of food????
Federal grants have also kicked in millions. So where are the crops farmers that got the money and the land to grow it on? I do know a group was looking for a trip to the states to learn organic farming a while back, but can we at least START the growing with the already alloted money and cleared land?
Annie, I can’t believe you haven’t seen the crop farmers and their produce along the roads of St. Croix struggling to make a livelihood out of farming.
It seems clear that the precious arable land in the Virgin Islands is much more profitable to speculators as homesites and, more recently, gated communities. Every time I pass the Southgate property that has been subdivided into very expensive homesites, I see an example of this. That same property had been cattle land for decades. The soil is beautiful for farming.
This trend seems to be fully supported by our leadership, but there are several negative repercussions: permanent loss of agricultural land; high property costs and taxes; homes for wealthy mainlanders (since most locals cannot afford the asking prices) and less land for our children; more dependence on imported food.
Perhaps the best action for now is to engage in backyard gardening and to support the local farmers.
Our problem is that we are so focus on promoting tourism, we are not focusing on other ways to bring in revenue to the islands, besides these questionable rum deals. Most of the lower are heavy into growing their own fruits and vegetables, so that even when the world economy goes south, they would have enough food to sustain themselves. We need to geet back to the basics.