Surely, it is an irony that shortly after Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton's memorable 'cassava' speech in Parliament (and, of course, he said much more than advise the populace about a potential rice replacement), this newspaper has reported that some farmers in St Elizabeth are throwing produce away.

In a story under the headline 'Throwing pearls before swine', it was reported that a cauliflower and a broccoli farmer in St Elizabeth, who can be taken to be representative of the profession in the area, resorted to dumping excess produce in light of reduced demand. As cauliflower farmer Desmond Whitely puts it, "A lot of times, some thousands of pounds of it me have to feed it to pigs. I wouldn't mind somebody come take it off o' me."

Displeased with the waste

While the pigs may be appreciative of the vitamin and carbohydrate-rich diet and it just may make the porcine flesh more palatable for those who indulge, we certainly are displeased with not only the farmers' waste of effort and expenditure, but also the reason that is given for the practice. Farmers in the Carlisle area of 'St Bess' attributed the food dumping to the preference for imported vegetables, the hotel sector being among those with the 'foreign taste'.

It would seem clear to us that the general population cannot be persuaded to consume cassava as a local product in one instance of import substitution, while the hotel sector (and we do recognise that for many Jamaicans a local hotel may as well be in a foreign land) is not expected to give guests literally as close to an all-inclusive taste of Jamaica as possible.

Temporary redress

However, allowing for distinctions in taste, casting of stones, pearls, cassava, cauliflower and broccoli is not the answer. Instead, there is a potential solution, or at least temporary redress of the situation, from Mr Whitely, who said, "I wouldn't mind somebody come take it off o' me."

So, distribution is a part of the problem, as it was when farmers in St Elizabeth were dumping cow's milk a few years ago. It would, therefore, seem that as part of the 'eat Jamaican' campaign, the Government could facilitate exchange of goods and money between those farmers who have excess and those consumers who have less. The farmer would almost certainly get less money than if the produce were being sold in a competitive market situation, but it would definitely be more than the satisfied grunt of a hog.

Immediate arrest

We have also noted in yesterday's Gleaner, this time with great satisfaction, Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn's suggestion that police personnel who are accused of crimes, of course with evidence and reasonable cause, be arrested immediately and steps taken to prevent them fleeing the island. Far too many times we have heard that police officers have simply been "removed from front-line duties, pending investigations", which often turns out to be the opening gambit in a matter that drags on and on and on, with justice seeming to have been forgotten to be done.

There is no difference between a civilian and a police officer in a criminal situation, and there should be no difference in how they are treated.