World Food Day was observed on October 16 and the day seemingly passed with little fanfare. Does it mean that food and nutrition is something that we pay very little attention to in these parts?
We recall in times past the occasion was marked with school fairs, art competitions, and other exercises to excite citizens. And while the Ministry of Agriculture held a banana and plantain festival last weekend to mark the occasion, the general consensus is that not enough is being done to highlight the importance of food security and agriculture in a bid to lower our food import bill. Especially as we continue to see the cost of food rise sharply at supermarkets and the penchant for citizens to gravitate towards fast food.
Collectively, CARICOM has placed the issue of food security on the table — for many years now. But much like so many other issues — such as regional airlift, free movement of people — the pace for arriving at a strategy for food security is way too slow.
Originally, the focus of CARICOM was to reduce the region’s heavy reliance on food imports by boosting local agriculture and intra-regional trade, by 2025. The target was to reduce the region’s food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.
The 25 by 2025 initiative has now been extended to 2030, with a renewed focus towards combating the effects of climate change on agriculture by implementing climate-smart agriculture.
Saint Lucia and other CARICOM countries have discussed boosting local agricultural production and increasing the production of staples such as vegetables, corn, and poultry.
However, in tandem with these “talks” we continue to see the fast pace of the importation of foreign food franchises in Saint Lucia and other parts, who rely heavily on imports.
Additionally as the number of hotel rooms increase, we have been unable to adequately supply their requirements of fruits, vegetables, and other root crops.
There is also the slow pace of plans to mechanise agriculture and make the field more enticing to young people.
We believe that the time is now to begin a robust and sustainable campaign in schools where our children can have an appreciation for locally grown fruits and vegetables as opposed to imported ones. We need to also move past the talk and into action where agro-processing is concerned, as far too many fruits go to waste during their season.
Additionally, Food and Nutrition and Agriculture Science are subjects that are too important to be seen as secondary to Mathematics and English, or even to be brushed aside.
Food security is too important an issue to be discussed glibly during budget debates or national planning platforms.
The time to push forward for a national food security consensus and implementation is now. This must be a priority and there is no better time to start.
