The Tribune

By ADRIAN GIBSON

ajbahama@hotmail.com

RECENTLY, I was very happy to see that the current administration launched the Bahamas Agriculture and Marine Science Institute (BAMSI), which has been touted as an agricultural and marine resources institute that will have wide ranging impact on the economy and put our food security at the top of our developmental agenda. I do hope that, considering the fact that we import more than a billion dollars’ worth of food annually, this is not another pie-in-the-sky, political pipedream being sold to the masses. I have always believed that with initiative and governmental and private sector collaboration, we can reduce the amount of monies sent from the Bahamas for imports.

Indeed, the skyrocketing food prices in the Bahamas and our over dependence on imported food increases the likelihood of our country tinkering on the brink of a food crisis.

In recent years, the escalation in the price of oil has had a trickle down affect on the cost of food which has left Bahamians saddled with more bills and grim financial outlooks.

A few years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organisation said that food prices across the globe had dramatically risen by 45 per cent. In a 2008 appearance on the morning television show Bahamas at Sunrise, local economist Rupert Pinder claimed that food has been marked up by 200-300 per cent in the Bahamas. This is flabbergasting!

“The Bahamas is really a small open economy, small in the sense that we are very dependent on the outside world in terms of trade and imports. The country has an importing economy, as 80 per cent of what we consume is imported,” Mr Pinder said.

Mr Pinder also suggested that the taxes being applied to basic commodities are driving up the cost of living.

For many years, consecutive governments have pursued an ill-advised singular economic model that is reliant on foreign investment—tourism and the financial sector—whilst slighting agricultural development as if it were not a priority. These days, although there are large quantities of unused crown land, our government’s apparent condescension for farming and agribusiness over the years has fostered apathy for farming among the citizenry.

Today, age has caught up with the remaining, yet greatly diminished group of Out Island farmers, and thus far the government has done little to encourage local food production and recruit youngsters to enter the field.

Indeed, beyond the fact that the Bahamas has no real influence on world economic affairs, it is in part the fault of our governments why we continue to be a dependent price-taker. With the explosion of food prices, the Bahamas is an economically undiversified country facing a looming crisis!

According to food agencies around the world, the hike in food prices is due to fluctuating and sometimes heightened oil prices, a population boom in developing countries, drought and floods associated with global warming and an increased demand for bio-fuels/alternative energy. Furthermore, World Bank statistics suggest that world food prices have shot up by 80 per cent since 2005, which is disastrous for our needy country that has its currency pegged to the ever plummeting US dollar. When compared to the 1990s, a dollar purchases far less.

While other countries have heavily invested in their agricultural sector, Bahamian governments have dilly-dallied and wanted to be fed by international producers. Moreover, the rising cost of energy amplifies our dependency on imports, because the cost of transport and bloated freight rates are being passed on to consumers. How can we realistically consider ourselves to be a truly independent nation when we depend on foreign countries for everything?

A few years ago, Prescott Smith—a social activist and president of the Bahamas Sportfishing and Conservation Association— blamed our economic model and the local merchant elite for the Bahamas’ failure to nourish our agricultural industry. Mr Smith asserted that “a few merchants who would prefer to maintain total economic control by the continuation of us being dependent on imports at the expense of us feeding ourselves is one of the main reasons for very high food prices in The Bahamas. The Governments over the years have lacked the true will to encourage and support agriculture in a real way to reduce imports and a dependency with regards to us feeding ourselves.

“As I have looked back over the period of 90 plus years we continue to follow the same Eurocentric model and that is the reason we don’t see the real changes that are needed to move us forward. Most of our leaders have been mis-educated in having very little confidence in black Bahamians to really be able to make a real difference in moving us to real changes of which we so badly need,” he said.

Locally, consumers are not getting value for money. Breadbasket items such as flour, butter, cheese and canned goods have all been outrageously priced.

As a nation, agriculture is our sleeping giant (at least one of them). Sometime ago, veteran farmer PA Strachan said that “this country does not eat the food it grows, nor does it grow the food it eats.” This is true since the Bahamas has no food security and is a nation where Bahamians have adopted an inferiority complex and reject local products for foreign items.

Why hasn’t any of our previous governments encouraged sustainable development in real and tangible ways? The sun, sand and sea are omnipresent features that will always attract tourists, but what have we done to internally sustain ourselves? In these times, any current or future visionary government should encourage food production, instead of spending about a billion each year on imported food. Surely, we would starve if an earth-shattering event disrupts our food imports!

During my upbringing on Long Island, I observed that my grandparents were self-sufficient and rarely bought farm goods such as tomatoes, cabbages, onions, peppers, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, water melons, cassava, yams, citrus fruits, pigeon peas/bean and mangoes.

Frankly, these products, along with seafood and mutton, were almost never purchased. It has been an adjustment, to sometimes buy dillies, guineps and tamarinds from street vendors here, since picking these fruits in backyards—without charge—remains an aspect of everyday island life.

I can vividly remember “shucking” and roasting or boiling corn! Farming activity has been reduced with age and the lack of government support for farmers. Nonetheless, I am appreciative to have been raised on an island and taught self-sufficiency, since making food stuffs such as bread or cooking is more economical than relying on bakeries for bread or foreign/local franchises for fast food during these economically gloomy times.

In Nassau, it appears that the only way residents can access fresh vegetables/fruits is directly from the few remaining farms, the Produce Exchange, organic stores and a small number of stores, particularly petty shops. Soon, many Nassauvians will once again have to resort to backyard gardens. I certainly have planted a few things in my backyard!

When he spoke about the high rate of food imports, Prescott Smith then said:

“With regards to the government limiting imports this can only be done with the encouragement of us growing our own food.”

“We also need to be able to take the food grown and produce end products like canning the tomatoes and cucumbers and the many other products we can grow in this country. From what I see in Andros we are capable of growing the items, but where we fall into huge problems with Bahamians is they have never had any real help on the business end of things. There has not been real help brought to bear in this key area, and again from my observations this is encouraged by the controlling elites to keep economic controls in the hands of the few. Most of our leaders have sold out for their own personal gains and have been mis-educated on the other hand to believe that we can truly do very little else in this regard,” he said.

I am pleased to hear that BAMSI, which is situated in Andros, is a multifaceted institute that is foreseen to have a positive impact on the Bahamas, from—as one BAIC press release puts it—“a commercial farming prospective where produce will be for sale to the general public, foodstores, restaurants, and hotels that will grow produce and livestock on the site. Then there is also the educational component where there will be certificate programmes and academic degree courses. The College of the Bahamas affiliation will ensure proper research development and best practices are held up to standards which will bring a new level of food security to the Bahamas.”

The government must encourage farmers throughout the Bahamas and food production by expediting the requests of qualifying persons for crown land; developing an agricultural curriculum for schools; constructing and repairing packing houses; granting loans through the Bahamas Development Bank; placing higher tariffs on crops that are imported into the Bahamas, but that are locally grown; encouraging the sale and use of Bahamian crops in the supermarkets and in local restaurants/hotels; providing more efficient transport to market as many goods rot in packing houses while waiting for weekly mail boats; granting tax allowances on machinery and assisting in the purchase of seeds; fostering farmers markets and assisting in the development of irrigation schemes.

With increasing inflation, Bahamians had better learn to produce food before we are forced—due to our depreciating economic state— to join so many others in other countries who are purportedly eating grass and mud pies!