THE EDITOR, Sir:
ONCE AGAIN sugar is in the news and it has left a sour taste in our mouths, as the EU plans to reduce the price at which it buys sugar from Jamaica by as much as 39 percent.
The signals were clear from the moment beet sugar was anointed the sweetener of choice and dethroned cane sugar as king and the economic golden egg for Great Britain and Europe. In the wake of this we were finally "given our Independence" from colonial rule and it has not been a sweet story ever since.
Fast-forward to 1975 when a Sugar Protocol was signed to guarantee us price and quantity quotas. This is 2005. It is a new millennium. It is time to rethink, redesign, redefine and diversify our agriculture product line. We must begin to re-invent the sector to meet the emerging global village and GROW our economy. There needs to be a serious thrust in this direction, and mounting protests just does not cut it.
FEED OURSELVES FIRST
It is time to institute "state farms". There are thousands of young persons who could be deployed into this programme. They could be housed in dormitories, and eat what they grow, etc, etc. The possibilities are endless. We must as a nation first be able to feed ourselves at affordable prices with quality products.. For a country that has earned the reputation of producing some world bests in the food arena, such as Blue Mountain coffee, Pickapeppa Sauce, jerk sauce, rum, ginger, cocoa, etc. we should be doing far better.
The Swiss are world-renowned for their chocolate and they do not grow one cocoa plant. Ponder on that for a moment. Even our gganja' has earned its fair share of, shall we say, notoriety, because it is grown in Jamaican soil. There was talk at some point that bagasse board was going to be produced from cane trash. How far has this idea progressed? Perhaps sugar ants have taken it over. We should be light-years ahead in recycling and utilising by-products from our main production engines. Why are we importing potting soil for example, Free Trade or not? Rather, we should have long established compost mountains all over the island and growing our crops organically as well as hydroponically, as much as possible, rather than depleting our precious soil with harsh and expensive, so-called fertilisers which can also prove harmful to our health.
The milk of human kindness no longer flows freely. It is every man (country) for himself. We have been weaned. The 2003 figures out of the Statistical Institute show our imports figures at J$210 plus million as against J$68 million plus for exports. This is not good. We cannot tax our way to prosperity; overseas remittances and all. The majority of the hardworking PAYE employees have no access to what is deemed 'disposable income'. From as far back as I can recall, we are always being asked to tighten our belts. Well, the proverbial, figurative belt has become a boa constrictor and is squeezing the lifeblood and dignity out of most of us.
With the CSME apparently heading for a state of limbo, many of the tools that we need are there waiting for us to ustilise them, we must reach out and grasp them. We must wake up from our Rip Van Winkle sleep before the EU completely loses its appetite for cane sugar and other traditional products.
I am, etc.,
M. EDWARDS
Kingston 6
Melly_ja@hotmail.com
