Loveridge: After unprecedented government concessions to Sandals, the company pays only lip service to Bajan agricultural suppliers.

Sandals’ Butch Stewart doesn’t look like he’s starving, but little of what he and his resort guests eat is Bajan.

“What must be clear to Government, is that after granting the unprecedented unilateral concessions to Sandals (which almost two years later not a single other hotel on Barbados has been able to obtain), Sandals must do more than give lip service to supporting our agricultural sector.”

Adrian Loveridge – tourism expert, hotel owner

First let me declare my absolute and total support for those advocating the use and consumption of more locally produced items especially by our tourism industry.

When the head of the Barbados Agricultural Society recently boasted that Sandals Barbados were purchasing 1,000 lbs of local produce each week, no-one thought to question him as to what this actually means. In all fairness to James Paul, he stated that they were trying to increase this amount, but let’s look at the current figures.

If the hotel is full that is a capacity of 580 guests each night who have every meal and snack included in the cost. This equates to a volume of just 4 ounces per person per day.

And that is before any allowance is made for the quoted 600 staff and management taking meals on the property.

The United States is currently the largest market for Sandals and the average American, according to internet informed information, is 36.6 years of age, is 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs 190 lbs if male, or 5 feet 4 inches and 164 lbs if female. Again based on averages each American consumes nearly 5.5 lbs of food per day or a short ton per annum.

Over a year this includes 29 lbs of French Fries, 23 lbs of pizza, 24 lbs of ice cream, 53 gallons of soda, 24 lbs of artificial sweetener and a staggering 2,736 lbs of sodium, which is 47 per cent above the recommended medical limit. All of which add up to 2,700 calories daily.

The question should also be asked, is the average Sandals guest likely to consume more or less than they do at home than on a fully all-inclusive vacation?

In reality then the 4 ounces of ‘local produce’ represents less than 4 per cent of consumables used daily, therefore a proverbial drop in the ocean. 

Cotton crop in danger as Barbados Government unable to pay pickers for last year’s work

Labour Action a result of no pay for a year

Contributed anonymously by Rotten Cotton

Our 2015 cotton crop is in danger of rotting in the fields as fewer than 10% of last year’s 150 registered cotton pickers are willing to work, and this year the crop is almost double the size of 2014.

The problem is that the Government of Barbados hasn’t been able to pay the pickers for the work they did a full year ago, picking the 2014 crop.

Guess what folks? You promise to pay agricultural workers a certain amount for each pound of cotton and you don’t pay them for a year… what happens is that nobody shows up to pick the next crop.

Got that Prime Minster Stuart?

It’s a simple and basic concept that this government hasn’t grasped I know. The government can put off paying suppliers, contractors and government employees when the money can’t be found, and those people will hang in waiting for the government to catch up on payments.

But you can’t do that to poor agricultural workers for a year or they walk and that is exactly what has happened.

“How bad is the financial situation really when the government puts the whole 2015 cotton crop at risk because they can’t pay workers their 40 cents a pound that has been owing to them for a year?”

The newspapers and television are full of cotton stories with politicians, Agricultural Ministry officials and industry spokespeople hyping the value to the economy and the doubling of fields planted over last year but hardly anyone is talking about the growing sense of danger – some say verging on panic – that is spreading throughout the cotton community. 

Kick Starter staff picks new project by Permaculture Research Institute of Barbados

by Lorraine Ciarallo

The Permaculture Research Institute (CPRI) of Barbados has been in the making since 2012 and I am proud to finally announce that our project has started.

A couple days ago CPRI launched its KickStarter crowdfunding video campaign which I would like to share with you. The purpose of our project is to set up a permaculture school in Barbados to teach, educate and demonstrate through the principles of permaculture how to grow food, repair landscapes & build community. Permaculture is a design science, inspired by nature and guided by ethics. Its purpose is to meet the needs of humanity while benefiting the environment. To this end, it empowers individuals, local communities and the larger public to build sustainable & environmentally friendly:

• Food and Land Systems
• Social and community systems
• Shelter and home systems
• Livelihood and business systems

I hope you will take the time to watch the video. If this campaign is successful, it will help ensure the life of this project, a project which I am committed to for the next 3 years. It is super exciting for me to share it with you and I hope, you find it exciting too! 

Aquaponics makes farming profitable and productive

by Damian Hinkson

If farming were easy we would all be doing it! After all, food is our most basic need.

So it stands to reason that farming should be profitable, however that’s not the case. I will explain why using the three points below and then provide one solution to make farming profitable in Barbados.

First point is that we need to take a look at the big picture. If it was an equation farming would equal (carbon/nitrogen) + photosynthesis = calories. Each of the 3 parts requires energy inputs to bring the product to point of consumption.

Second, the source of all energy on earth is the sun and the general rule is; the quicker it can be harvested the more sustainable it is, while the longer it is stored the more harmful it becomes. (eg: hours from solar panels vs. thousands of years from oil/gasoline.)

The last point and the only one under man’s control is; control the energy and you control civilization. Unfortunately older type, harmful energy is easier to control therefore it is the type of energy our current civilization is built upon.

Why no solution on the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary?

(click photo for large)

Deliberate destruction of a RAMSAR Treaty natural wetlands

The last mangrove swamp in Barbados is being deliberately destroyed by the Barbados government – so that private interests (read ‘friends of the ruling party’) can benefit financially by squeezing out the foreign philanthropist / owner and then developing the area into condominiums and industrial parks. This is not an unheard of scenario in Barbados, especially with agricultural lands and natural / scrub / coastal areas. It also is common for landowners to spend decades trying to re-classify agricultural and other natural lands for development, only to be refused time and time again.

Then some person will come along and offer just a little bit over the agricultural value and the discouraged and beaten owner will sell. A few weeks later, the land is approved for development and quickly resold for a hundred times what was paid. That is the real Barbados!

The only problem with the Graeme Hall swamp is that the owner, a Canadian philanthropist named Peter Allard, doesn’t want to develop the area: he wants to preserve this precious natural resource for the Bajan people. Earlier Allard volunteered to have the Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary incorporated into a National Park. That didn’t work out when the greedy hands of career politicians wanted their cut or NO DEAL! Now that political elite is determined to have it all.

It might take more twenty more years for the cabals to get hold of what is probably the most valuable land on the south coast, but the elites think in generations and they know that there are other foreign chickens to pluck until that time arrives. The elites own the courts and the government, so they have plenty of time. 

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs): Threat or salvation?

Hello BFP, Green Monkey here. You might find of interest the following article from Prison Planet:

GMOs could cause ‘irreversible termination of life’ on Earth, risk expert warns…

When discussing the issues surrounding genetically modified organisms (GMOs) — that is, organisms bearing the genetic traits of other species or bacteria — the focus is typically on how safe (or unsafe) these novel, food-like products are for humans. But distinguished risk engineer and two-time best-selling author Nassim Taleb thinks an even bigger problem with GMOs is their threat to the planet, and the statistical likelihood that they will eventually lead to the collapse of life on Earth.

In a new study, which is still in draft form, this professor of risk engineering from New York University uses statistical analysis to make the case that GMOs, by their very nature, will disrupt the ecosystems of this planet in ways that mankind is only just beginning to comprehend. Because they represent a systemic risk rather than a localized one — GM traits are known to spread unconstrained throughout the environment — GMOs will eventually breach the so-called “ecocide barrier,” leading to catastrophic ecosystem failure.

“There are mathematical limitations to predictability in a complex system, ‘in the wild,’ which is why focusing on the difference between local (or isolated) and systemic threats is a central aspect of our warnings,” Taleb is quoted as saying by Fool.com, noting that it’s essentially impossible to contain the inevitable spread of GMO traits far and wide.

“The [precautionary principle] is not there to make life comfortable, rather to avoid a certain class of what is called in probability and insurance ‘ruin’ problems,” write Taleb and his colleagues in their paper. “For nature, the ‘ruin’ is ecocide: an irreversible termination of life at some scale, which could be the planet.”

GMOs are not ‘scientific,’ and nearly every argument used in their defense is flawed…  

Shocker: Frozen Taiwan Mahi-Mahi sold as fresh Barbados dolphin!

UPDATED: Importer to Barbados is… (drum roll please)…

Yinnex Co.
Taiwan 3 shipments total Has verified third-party data
2 shipments match west indies
…Stowed In A Refrigerated Set At The Of 25 Also Morgans Fish House Inc. 7 Gibbons Industrial Park, Barbados West Indies

Attn: Mr. Jonathan Morgan (link here)

We used to have to explain Bajan Dolphin to visitors. “It isn’t flipper but a fish known elsewhere as mahi mahi”.

Now even Bajans may need some explanations. As this recent photo taken at the Bridgetown Fishing Complex shows, your “fresh Bajan Dolphin” may well be defrosted Taiwanese Mahi Mahi!

How can this be? The answer is that it is easier and cheaper to import fish from the other side of the world, rather than to pay local fisher folk fair value.

Wary Bajan Fish Eater

(click photo for large)

Thanks to an old friend!

And from another old friend, we received this:

Yinnex Co. 17TH FL, 129 FU HSING SOUTH ROAD, SECTION 1 TAIPEI,TAIWAN S/O:1111

Could Barbados diversify its agricultural industry with marijuana-fed pork?

Pot-fed pork selling for US$20 a pound…

Well, it’s not like we’re making any money from sugar cane anymore!

Thanks to an old friend for suggesting this video

Confusion and intrigue as press release battle errupts over the “Sea Island Cotton” brand names.

A press release battle over which companies have the right to purchase and sell grown in Barbados cotton has journalists, news media and blogs so confused that nobody seems to know the truth about anything when it comes to “Sea Island Cotton”.

This confusion is deadly to the value of our cotton on the world market because the added value in cotton grown in Barbados comes from the brand not from the cotton itself. Our cotton is expensive to produce due to the lack of economy of scale, the higher labour costs to grow and harvest and higher processing and transportation costs to get it to market. IF our cotton is “better” than cotton grown in other places it is probably only incrementally better, and not superior enough to justify the price differential from cotton grown by China, India and other mass-scale producers.*

So what we really have is the brand, the name… and now there is confusion.

Just read the below press releases from Adlai Stevenson, the CEO of “ECCI” and rival Kyto BioPharma Inc. and you’ll see these brands or names mentioned…

Exclusive Cottons of the Caribbean Inc. “ECCI”

West Indian Sea Island Cotton

Barbados Sea Island Cotton Inc.

Genuine Certified West Indian Sea Island Cotton

Another company used to market our crop as “Caribbean Sea Island Cotton“

You’ll also see that while Mr. Stevenson’s press release says “We buy all West Indian Sea Island Cotton grown commercially in Barbados and process that cotton…”, that statement falls short of saying that ECCI buys all cotton produced in Barbados. ECCI says it buys all the “West Indian Sea Island Cotton”: whatever that means. The headline on the release doesn’t say “still retains all rights to ALL Barbados-grown cotton”… it says “still retains all rights to Barbados-grown cotton”

That missing word could be a big deal.

The cotton industry in Barbados has had rough times in the last fifteen years, including troubles surrounding the ownership of the brand and processing companies, with the Barbados Defense Force once sent to seize everything at gunpoint and against a judge’s order, and some of the involved foreign investors threatened and arsoned! In June of 2013 we also told readers about an  overly-slick stock scheme involving Barbados cotton.

So good luck to the poor folks who rely upon cotton to make their living in Barbados. The big money boys are fighting again.

Here is Adlai Stevenson’s Press Release, and then we’ll have the press release from Kyto BioPharma Inc….

* According to the National Cotton Council of America, the top ten cotton producing countries are (in order) People’s Republic of China, India, United States, Pakistan, Brazil, Uzbekistan, Australia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Greece.

Exclusive Cottons of the Caribbean Inc. still retains all rights to Barbados-grown cotton

Exclusive Cottons of the Caribbean Inc. (ECCI), the company responsible for transforming West Indian Sea Island Cotton (WISIC) into a viable industry, has taken issue with inaccurate statements about Barbados’ cotton industry being made in a press release being circulated on Internet news websites and blogs in the United States (US) and Barbados.

ECCI says that the release and iterations of it which appeared in the US before being picked up by local media and blogs state that a Canadian bio-pharmaceutical company called Kyto BioPharma Inc., had recently announced that it was acquiring the outstanding common shares in a company called Barbados Sea Island Cotton Inc. (BSC). The release also stated that a Jonathan Bryant will be named President and Chief Operating Officer and Director of BSC after the share exchange has been completed.

Company says “political relationships” enabled purchase of Barbados Sea Island Cotton

Does Barbados really have a cotton industry?

Hey… I’m just sayin’ what they are sayin’ !!!

Kyto BioPharma Inc. Announces Letter of Intent to Acquire Barbados Sea Island Cotton Inc.

PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL–(Marketwired – Jul 22, 2013) – Kyto BioPharma Inc. (“Kyto”) (OTCQB: KBPH) is pleased to announce that it has entered into a Letter of Intent to acquire all of the outstanding common shares of Barbados Sea Island Cotton Inc. (“BSC”) through the issuance of 10 million common shares of Kyto to the shareholders of BSC and BSC satisfying Kyto’s outstanding debt on closing. BSC, through political relationships, industry experience and proprietary investments in the Island of Barbados, has secured the rights to manage …

Wall Street Journal here

Barbados Sea Island Cotton – Barbados Government backing ‘double your money’ slick stock scheme!

Now this is interesting. The Caribbean Sea Island Cotton brand has become Barbados Sea Island Cotton and to get the whole thing rolling again the Bajan Government is apparently backing a ‘double your money way too fast’ scheme.

More questions than answers in the video, but it does remind me about a BFP article published back in September of 2009. Here’s an excerpt…

Our bull manure warning meter spiked though when we read another one of those “Things gonna be just fine!” articles at the CBC – this one about Barbados cotton. Yup, right on schedule every year or so for the past ten years the government of the day announces that our cotton industry is going to be “revitalised” through better marketing. Nevermind that we haven’t the economies of scale to be competitive on the world market. Nevermind that we can’t even find sufficient labour to harvest the sugar crop in a timely manner.

Nevermind the naysayers, says the government to CBC, Barbados will “revitalise” the cotton industry. (Hmmm…. I think I smell a World Bank development grant out there somewhere.)

And how are we going to make Barbados cotton economically viable? How are we going to compete against China and India, the first and second largest cotton producers in the world? How are we going to profit in the middle of a recession where the commodity news services are reporting Recession hits cotton consumption, down 12% ?

How is Barbados cotton going to be profitable when India is using her booming economy to subsidize her cotton farmers so much that world cotton prices are forecast to fall by 6% in the next year?

How are we going to make Barbados cotton viable?

We’re going to make a “new brand”, that’s how! We’re going to sell to “upscale” markets. Yup, that’s what Agriculture Minister Senator Benn told the CBC.

Read the full article at BFP: Caribbean Sea Island Cotton brand to be killed by Barbados… as if a name change will solve anything

Should Barbados allow the Monsanto seed monopoly? Can we stop it even if we want to?

“Patents on seed are illegitimate because putting a toxic gene into a plant cell is not “creating” or “inventing” a plant. These are seeds of deception — the deception that Monsanto is the creator of seeds and life; the deception that while Monsanto sues farmers and traps them in debt, it pretends to be working for farmers’ welfare, and the deception that GMOs feed the world. GMOs are failing to control pests and weeds, and have instead led to the emergence of superpests and superweeds.”

… from the Global Research article The Seeds Of Suicide: How Monsanto Destroys Farming

“Monsanto works with farmers from around the world to make agriculture more productive and sustainable. Our technologies enable farmers to get more from every acre of farmland.

Specifically, we are working to double yields in our core crops by 2030. These yield gains will come from a combination of advanced plant breeding, biotechnology, and improved farm-management practices.”

… from the Monsanto website Our Commitment to Sustainable Agriculture

“In the nearly 20 years of applied use of G.E. in agriculture there have been two notable ‘successes,’ along with a few less notable ones. These are crops resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide (Monsanto develops both the seeds and the herbicide to which they’re resistant) and crops that contain their own insecticide. The first have already failed, as so-called superweeds have developed resistance to Roundup, and the second are showing signs of failing, as insects are able to develop resistance to the inserted Bt toxin — originally a bacterial toxin — faster than new crop variations can be generated.”

… from the NYT as quoted in Prison Planet’s Even the NY Times is now rejecting Monsanto GMO science

BFP thanks Green Monkey for suggesting this article

Dr. Robert Lucas: Taking issue with the scientific illiterates

Tropical soils, Temperate soils: What’s the difference and does it matter?

In the Advocate newspaper of 8^th April 2013, there was an article captioned “Organic agriculture can boost restaurant sub-sector.” Immediately below the caption in bold font was the following statement: “In temperate countries like the UK, the organic matter content stood at 5%. In Barbados on the other hand….the organic matter content in most soils was less than one percent.” The statement also appeared in paragraph five of the article. In paragraph eight of the same article, the following appeared: “Conventional methods contribute to green house gas emissions and can cause inefficiencies in energy use..” The two statements were attributed to the National Co-ordinator of the United Nations Development Facility Small Grants Program (GEF SGP).

In biology there is a concept called the temperature quotient. The temperature quotient is a ratio of the velocity of a process at a given temperature to that at a temperature 10 °C lower. In biological systems the temperature quotient is about 2-3. This means that there is (using the lower figure) a doubling of the rate of a biological reaction for every ten degrees increase in temperature. This doubling effect occurs up to certain temperature beyond which, there is an adverse reaction due to effect of heat. Since tropical countries are hotter than temperate ones, one would expect tropical soils to have little or no soil organic matter. Obviously, if fresh vegetation or pen manure is added to tropical soils, initially, soil organic matter will be high. This, however, is only so for a short time. The duration of organic matter is further reduced in the presence of air and water. Another fact to be considered is the carbon /nitrogen ration of the added vegetation or manure. If the nitrogen content is too low, the rate of decomposition is retarded: the converse occurs if there is adequate nitrogen available. Pen manure or vegetation added to the soil is broken down by soil micro-organisms. Students of biology would have encountered in their studies the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Carbon dioxide and nitrogen are the ultimate products of the decomposition of manure and vegetation when added to soils as is the case when fertilizers are used.

I have stated in the past that, the majority of Barbadians are scientific illiterate and the article referred to, supports what I have been saying for years.

Sincerely

Robert D.Lucas, Ph.D.

Food biotechnologist.

Free market and science drive Apes Hill Club’s choice of grass

Barbados Free Press has been kicking ’bout hey for over seven years and that is a long time in the blog world to post every day and build credibility with the search engines like Google and Yahoo!. Readership goes up and down with the news stories and when a big event happens we receive tens of thousands of visitors a day. Our best day ever was 44,087 visitors and just last week we did alright when some discussion about Harlequin was flying and 33,669 visitors stopped by.

Those numbers aren’t much compared with the big blogs that drive that kind of traffic and better every day, but we still do 3 million visitors a year at BFP and that’s not bad for a little nothing blog run by a bunch of drunks and the occasional unemployed aircraft riveter. (Anybody want to buy the world’s best set of bucking bars and dimplers – give me a shout! And when I say “the world’s best set” I mean it. It includes some wildly customized bucking bars and cutters that you didn’t even know you needed until you use them. I shoulda patented them a long time ago but it’s too late now.)

Some press release agents think Barbados Free Press is a real newspaper. Huh?

Some people mistake us for a real newspaper (or maybe they don’t) and we receive a couple of dozen press releases a week about anything and everything. Most are boring product announcements but today we see one about a type of grass that does exceptionally well in the Barbados and similar climes. I never considered it before but the press release has me thinking about how a good drought-resistant grass could save big money for a golf course over a few years. Water is scarce and expensive in Bim, so the choice of grass for any type of space should be a carefully considered decision.

Apes Hill Club Nursery is the licensed producer of this Zoysia sod in Barbados. That probably means it’s expensive… but how much water will you save over the years by using this type?

Robert

BARBADOS — Bladerunner Farms, the world’s largest privately owned zoysiagrass research and development facility, is proud to announce that Apes Hill Club Nursery, a licensed producer of JaMur Zoysia on the Caribbean Island of Barbados, now has this environmentally friendly turfgrass available for harvest.

The wholesale Apes Hill Club Nursery grows 15-acres of JaMur Zoysia for harvest as sod, along with some 50,000 plants, that are sold to commercial landscapers, land developers and homeowners on the island of Barbados. Ed Paskins, CGCS, is the golf course superintendent at the neighboring Apes Hill Club golf club and was instrumental in developing the Apes Hill Club Nursery.

Before planting the sod farm at Apes Hill Club Nursery, Paskins visited the Poteet, Texas, research facility of Bladerunner Farms to see JaMur Zoysiagrass in a real-world situation. That visit helped him decide to license JaMur Zoysia for use in Barbados.

“You need to know that you’re getting quality and that the person is going to stand beside it. I think that because Bladerunner Farms is a family business and the owner, David Doguet, was willing to put his reputation on the line for the grass was extremely important,” Paskins said.

…continue reading this article at WorldGolf

Food-fraud a multi-billion dollar business. Horsemeat scandal continues.

 

Veterinarians should refrain from meddling in food processing operations.

For Barbados Free Press by Robert D. Lucas, PH.D

Food traceability has been topical in the print-media recently in connection with the adulteration (food fraud) and mis-labeling of beef and other processed food products with horse meat in countries of the European Union( EU).

According to Barbados Senior Veterinary officer, Dr. Mark Trotman, (as reported in the Barbados Advocate of the 21 and 28 of  February 2013) ‘his department has carried out “extensive-traced back investigations” and to date none of the identified products had been imported into Barbados.’ Products adulterated with horsemeat in  the European Union were listed in both articles. Presumably, Trotman was referring to these products.

I will now explain for the benefit of Trotman some facets of food safety, traceability and meat speciation analysis.

“No amount of tracking without use of analytical techniques of meat speciation would have prevented the fraud…”

“I have always stated that unless veterinarians are trained in public health, they should refrain from meddling in food processing operations.”

In the past (letters to the Advocate: Food fraud a Global Occurrence, November 18, 2000) I outlined the wide-spread nature of food fraud and stated that it was a multi-billion-dollar business. The adulteration of processed foods with horsemeat falls under the heading of food fraud. No amount of tracking without use of analytical techniques of meat speciation would have prevented the fraud as I will now explain.

Bajan Canadian Farm Worker – participants raped by the Barbados government

 

High time now that our voices be heard!!!!

by Lance – Canadian Farm Worker

The Barbadian Canadian farm workers need someone to champion their cause because in my opinion we’re currently being ripped off by the Barbados government. The 28% deduction that our home-savings has to suffer at the conversion point first – before we’re ever paid a penny of it at the end of the season – is a brutal and bloodsucking act of government.

I’m also of the opinion that the 25% which is deducted from our gross earnings in Canada for home-saving is way too much! And then to be subjected to a further 28% deduction after it’s converted to the Barbados currency is just wrong man! This is corruption of the highest fashion. It means that our spending power is limited in Canada due to the 25% that’s deducted from our earnings, and then further handicapped after we return home by the additional 28% deduction that the 25% deduction for home-savings has to endure at the conversion point. How can we ever achieve a relatively decent living?

Our home-savings is all we have to sustain us for the 4 months we’re at home without employment. We can’t file for unemployment benefits or the reverse tax credit because they say we’re self-employed! A convenient technicality of government merely to leave us on our own hanging dry without any recourse, while they suck the last penny from us!

Barbados yogurt production ends – exposing more hollow government rhetoric

“Whenever practical, buy local.”

by Adrian Loveridge, small hotel owner

When we moved to Barbados almost 25 years ago and  purchased what was a semi-derelict Arawak Inn and beginning our journey in hotel operation, as non-nationals, not surprisingly, only a handful of suppliers would extend us credit. We have remained fiercely loyal and faithful to that small group.

So when PineHill made its entirely unilateral decision to stop producing yogurts it went entirely in the face of a policy we implemented when Peach and Quiet opened: “Whenever practical, buy local.”

“It is almost incomprehensible that this decision by PineHill was made at a time when our struggling dairy industry is trying to survive in the wake of a massive unsold milk glut.”

One or two people have indicated that PineHill did in fact issue a public notice in the media to the effect that they would no longer be manufacturing yogurts. But wouldn’t you, as a matter of course, write to customers that have traded with you for two decades?

After all, we have never been to busy to write and sign, literally hundreds of cheques to them over that period. It almost reeks of arrogance and indifference on their part.

So what do the 160 or so registered hotels, hundreds of villas, apartments and condominiums do now?

In our own case we have been forced to purchase imported yogurts from a distributor, who bring in the French brand, Yoplait. While the individual containers do not show a country of origin, the packaging does and indicates that they are made at their US subsidiary in Minneapolis. So at a critical time, when we are trying to retain every cent of foreign earnings, here we are importing an item that has a long history of local production, that is being trucked and shipped by refrigerated transport over a distance of at least 6,000 miles.

Just think about the carbon footprint for a minute.

Surely the company has to publicly explain why they have chosen this time to cease production and why it is no longer viable? With over 500,000 long stay visitors annually plus sales to locals, cruise ship companies and inflight caterers, what is the problem?

Another point that should be raised, are the recognised health benefits associated with yogurts and would it not be in the national interest to encourage more consumption. Foreign alternatives almost certainly will be more expensive and in these challenging times that alone will stifle demand.

I was also surprised that yogurt attracted 17.5 per cent VAT, as it surely could not be considered a luxury food item, but more a weapon against obesity and digestive disorders. Back on 13th January 2011 under a large attention grabbing Nation News banner headline ‘Bigger Basket’, the then Minister of Trade stated that more VAT exempt items would be added to the ‘basket’. Once again, this appears to be only just more rhetoric.

I really hope that PineHill will re-consider their decision or alternatively take steps to relinquish their near monopoly of milk processing, by giving another manufacturer a chance in Barbados.

The Line in the Sand…

With rights there are responsibilities and while yogurt may seem to some as an insignificant part of the bigger picture, but to me, it’s the line in the sand.

After yogurt, what comes next?

Will PineHill then transfer milk production to Trinidad, because due to energy costs, its cheaper to boil the liquid there?

Rats, Round-up herbicide and Genetically Modified Corn

What is happening to our bodies?

Everybody has an agenda, but the wonderful thing about the internet is that information is no longer restricted and controlled by ‘official’ gate-keepers. As a sovereign human being I am able to examine all the information and then make up my own mind.

What do I think about genetically modified organisms? I’m not sure yet… but I’m getting nervous with the more information I receive from all sides and from the observations I make myself.

Not that it’s related to GMO corn or Round-up, I am curious about the apparent drastic reduction in the age at which females usually experience their first menses. One of the girls in our extended family is just entering puberty. She’s eight years old, just turned.

Tell me if I’m wrong folks, but I don’t think that happened twenty or thirty years ago, at least not with the frequency we hear about now.

What is happening to our bodies… and why?