The Editor, Sir:

I wish to direct the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) to the article written by Martin Henry in The Sunday Gleaner of April 27. I also extend my own caution that persons and now a government agency are over-simplifying own-grown food supply as a viable option to rising food prices.

Simply put, while this may be a useful solution (over the medium to long term) for persons in rural Jamaica or persons willing to convert their manicured Kingston lawns to vegetable gardens, it does not address the short-term and medium-term plight of city dwellers in Kingston's town houses and apartment complexes.

More relevant tips

I certainly cannot grow cassava in my flower pots that are arranged tightly on the patio/balcony of my apartment. So for me, and thousands of other persons who live in apartment complexes, the CAC's words are neither of wisdom nor of use.

I would have expected the CAC to provide more relevant tips and information. For instance, have they been monitoring the rate of the increase of those items for which the government had announced a $5 million subsidy?

What about the consumer's right to information? Has the CAC noticed that the majority of service stations no longer post the cost per litre of petrol on the billboards and, in some cases, not even at the pumps?

CAC's mandate

Is the CAC aware that I have received notice from my landlord that my rent will increase because NHT interest rates have gone up? Does the CAC know what its mandate is?

And if those things are not the remit of the CAC and farming tips are, how will the elderly pensioner confined to urban dwellings in Kingston manage the toil that is required for vegetable gardening, especially when the cost of fertiliser and other agents such as pesticides has gone up?

Mr Editor, please use your good office to remind the CAC of its specific and important mandate so that it will stop trying to be the Rural Agricultural Development Authority, the Scientific Research Council or the Pesticides Control Authority.

The role of the CAC is too important for it to attempt to dilute itself in extending an argument that is a non-starter. Again, I recommend Martin Henry's article to you all at the CAC and to the wider society.

I am, etc.,

KARINA POWELL

powell_karina@yahoo.com