by Rick Lowe
Fellow blogger, S3S, had a couple posts about Food Security recently and while I am all for individuals attempting to farm, even if it's only backyard gardens, I remain unconvinced that "food security" is a goal the Bahamas should aim for. In fact, I would argue it's impossible for us to provide 100% of our food requirements for a balanced meal.
Read part I here… and part II here…
Now I'm sure the agricultural sector can do more, and it has done more.
At one time Abaco was booming with sugar production until the government of the day (back in the mid to late 1960's) decided to play the heavy hand and Owens Illinois left.
Since then, successive government have wasted millions of dollars on the agricultural sector. But as is typical, the taxpayer receives no explanation, just reasons to "invest" millions more, either in grants or loans that are never repaid by the lucky recipients.
Meanwhile as we're encouraged to raise tarriff barriers etc as another way to "help local farmers" the FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations) often complains of the barriers their member countries enforce through tariffs.
So let me see if I get this. Other countries are raising tariffs against imports, so we should do the same thing? How about all countries dropping tarriffs? Seems a more simple and less costly way to manage it all to me?
By the way, an important consideration is how other countries doing with attaining food security, and this article provides some excellent information.
So at the end of the day, I'm all for farmers growing more here, and do enjoy the local farmers markets when their items are in season (which is short here), but I remain skeptical that charging other taxpayers more to give another one, albeit farmers, a break, makes little economic sense.
I'm afraid many of the proponents of food security here see it as a way of getting subsidies and that will hardly benefit everyone in the long wrong, particularly if we are to judge by past attempts at similar initiatives.
Mnay thanks Rick, from a too-rainy London
I am happy that you agree that ‘food security’ is a serious and rising issue for countries, as the world’s population explodes and China is leading the way, by buying up a lot of land in Africa, so they can feed their people.
And yes, subsidies help farmers all over the world – how do you think these five countries got on top of the food security index (2012)?
Best United States 89.5
Best Denmark 88.1
Best Norway 88
Best France 86.8
Best Netherlands 86.7
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jul/10/food-security-index
Sorry S3S, I do not agree with your premise.
Hi Rick, I stand corrected but now confess I’m slightly bemused.
In Part I, I argue the obvious (The Bahamas has never enjoyed food security as per the 4 Pillars and say why). In Part II, I lay out the uncertainty surrounding global food production and again state the obvious (The Bahamas is ill-equipped to deal with the challenges and cannot sustain our food production) BUT …. that given the above, The Bahamas ought to construct a long-term plan to start to assist ourselves.
I’m unsure as to how reason could disagree with the above approach?
You do say ‘I’m all for farmers growing more here, and do enjoy the local farmers markets when their items are in season’ … but your main point of departure seems to be on the use of public funds (taxes and subsidies) to support the effort.
I ask again, how do you think the top food secure countries got to their lofty positions in the Index?
Or perhaps you would prefer if we ended up wallowing at the ‘southern end’ of the Index with Madagascar, Haiti, Burundi, Chad, and (the) Congo?
Dear S3S,
So are you saying The Bahamas does not appear able to have “food security” and should avoid taxpayer subsidies? Because that’s what I’m saying.
What is the crisis in food supply based on? Extrapolations like the population bomb that was going to cause us all to starve to death by 2000 or the like, that turned out to be a myth?
And why is it “wallowing” at the bottom of the index, when the index seems to promote subsidies we can’t afford?
I worry when I see governments promoting doomsday theories.
Could the answer be capital intensive agriculture?? The countries you cite S3S all have consolidated farming practices and over the past five decades farm labor input has declined and give way to capital intensive farming methods..
Sadly agriculture policies in the Bahamas have been a total failure just as economic diversification has been a failure.. Perhaps the real demon is the high cost of unit labor required to produce a unit of output.. On a world ranking we must be somewhere near the bottom.. Lets face the facts, as a rule Bahamians do not make very good farmers as reflected in the ratio of labor costs to output measured in terms of real productivity.. Even more concerning this ratio is affecting the financial services industry and tourism.. Just like America, we seem to be pricing ourselves out the markets we compete in..
Rick, Tradewinds, thanks as ever for your stimulating input.
I showed in Part I that The Bahamas enjoys partial food security based on being able to enjoy the supply of and access to food, based on our neighbours, USA (and number 1 in F.I. ’12).
I also argued (Part II) that free trade cannot guarantee that The Bahamas will enjoy total food security because of the latter two pillars (quality and stability of food provision) because of all the factors I list (population, climate change, extreme weather, etc).
The high cost of labour, need for agro-technology, the facts that we have no governance and zero (or negative) growth in agriculture are all points I address, Tradewinds ….
The main divergence between our honourable ‘Blogger-in-Chief’** and myself, comes from my open-mindedness as to where the investment to reverse our situation should come from ….. whether the public purse or private funding or public-private partnership, doesn’t matter to me … what does Nike’s slogan say? We just need to do it!
** Said tongue-in-cheek, Rick, have a great Holiday and a best ever 2013 :):)
Yes S3S, I would say that’s a major departure point for us.
Instead of fighting the bad public policy of subsidies, we should not shrug our collective shoulders and say “because they do it, we should too”.
Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2013 to you and yours as well.