The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

In the wake of the Brazilian beef ban, Consumer Protection Commission Chairman Jerome Gomez has suggested that we need organisations to watch and to warn us about what is going on in other parts of the world.

I agree with him and would like to take it a step further. We need right now an agency (the CPC?) to tell us about what is going on here at home with regard to food production.

I am especially concerned with what kind of agriculture is being practised and taught by BAMSI. I hope and pray that they are not using the American model which is heavily dependent on pesticides, chemical fertilisers and, in the case of meat production, hormones. All of these are poisoning people and damaging their reproductive health as well as degrading the environment.

I hope that BAMSI and Bahamian farmers will follow the Cuban model of organic farming which is much healthier and which the Cubans developed as a matter of necessity. The Cubans even use certain plants to repel insects rather than health-destroying pesticides. And I certainly hope that BAMSI is not importing genetically-modified seeds and seedlings from America.

It is better to have the banana we used to produce here, which is not as pretty as the imported banana but tastier and healthier. I also hope that we will be planting the same kind of corn we used to plant rather than the genetically-modified American corn which is fructose-rich but lacking in nutrition.

Will someone in authority please assure me?

HOPEFUL

Nassau,

March 28, 2017.