Save the Bays Chairman Joe Darville (top row, third from left) with Bahamas Agricultural Forum for Youth members from D.W. Davis Junior High School. Youth involvement in the expo was coordinated through the Inter-American Institute on Agricultural Cooperation with local headquarters on Village Road in Nassau.

Healthy, Affordable Food Grown Locally Touted as Answer to Food Crisis

As Bahamian consumers become savvier about seeking out alternative ways to source healthy, safe food that’s affordable, the answer to Bahamas’ food future could very well be a return to its past.

“Until we as a people come back to the land and connect with God’s green earth, until we fully appreciate what growing more of our own food means, the full richness of our lives will never be realized,” said Joe Darville, Chairman of the environmental organization Save The Bays which has become an almost overnight sensation on Facebook with nearly 20,000 friends and followers.

Darville’s “back to basics” message was an often repeated refrain at the Agri-Business Expo 2016 which took place at Gladstone Road Agricultural Centre in Nassau March 9-13, the theme for which was “Progressing Toward Food Security: Our Food, Our Future, Our Bahamas.” Hot topics over the course of the five-day event centered on buying and growing local foods as the ultimate answer to the ongoing Bahamian food crisis.

“We remain dedicated to spreading the message of ‘buy what we must, grow what we can,’” said Alfred Gray, Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources.

Also known as the farm-to-table food movement, the success rate of producing and delivering food locally will be heavily contingent upon the way resources are seen and used by future generations of Bahamians. Youth involvement in the expo was coordinated through the Inter-American Institute on Agricultural Cooperation with local headquarters on Village Road in Nassau and sponsored by Save The Bays, BTC and Super Value.

“We are proud that Save The Bays is playing a small part in involving young people in the promising future of agribusiness,” Darville said. “I am thrilled to see so many new farmers, to see the government recognize farming pioneers and to be part of the new energy that farming is attracting.”

Although Save The Bays is commonly associated strictly with the protection of marine resources, Darville emphasized that environmental sustainability is an issue affecting all aspects of Bahamian lives, not the least of which is the food consumed by the country’s citizens.

“When people see or hear ‘Save The Bays,’ they automatically think marine resources because so much of our work revolves around protecting the waters and bays, mangroves, coral reefs and all the life they support,” Darville said. “But environmental sustainability is so much greater. True environmental sustainability is all encompassing.”

Source: Diane Phillips & Associates