Anguilla News covers Anguilla and the wider
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Solutions to Food Crisis in the
Caribbean
Date Posted: April 21, 2008.
Bridgetown, (Prensa Latina) Globally, food producing lands
and forests have been converted into lands for producing
fuels to partially address the fuel constraint, warns Dr.
Basil Springer, Consultant of Caribbean Business Enterprise
Trust Inc., based in Barbados.
This trend has led to dwindling international reserves of
cereals and grains and, together with reduced supplies of
rice in Asia, has fuelled the global food crisis and is
leading us down a path of poverty.
Professor Chandra Madramootoo, a West Indian who is Dean of
the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at
McGill University, observed that in the current situation,
Barbados could teach its neighbors a thing or two.
As a seasoned trade unionist, Sir Roy Trotman, Chairman of
the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of
Barbados, recognized his responsibility to react immediately
to the increased fuel prices which were announced last week
by the Government.
In face of the hike in fuel prices, he proposed wage
increases perhaps of "double digit" percentage proportion to
protect his constituents at the lower levels of the economic
ladder. Of course, if this were implemented, it could then
lead to a runaway inflationary spiral, a situation that
Barbadians have never experienced, warned Springer.
Why do we have to wait, asks Springer, until there is a
crisis to act? Are we going to wait until the impact of
global warming and sea level rise is a reality or are we
going to act now to prevent posterity from this looming
crisis?
Dr. Springer then lays out a 10 point plan which he thinks
could provide a solution if immediately and diligently
pursued.
Expand renewable energy sources like solar and eolic
Build a well coordinated agricultural commodity
project approach, one commodity at a time, which manages
the supply chain to the available markets.
Encourage enterprise development particularly those
projects of high performance on the global market.
Enhance productivity in the public and private
sectors.
Persuade trade unions to work towards greater
productivity for fair compensation.
Focus on "doing business" as creatively and as
profitably as possible in the private sector environment
and investing some of their profits back into the growth
of the economy.
Create innovative policies and effective services.
Tax the outputs not the inputs -start small; do it
right; make a profit; then expand.
Involve the mass media through optimal communication
strategies.
Review the social partnership to contribute to
sustainable socio-economic success.
Springer mentions an example to follow, that of James
Husbands who received an Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Award
for Excellence for his pioneering work in solar water
heating manufacturing in the Caribbean over the past 34
years.
