I must commend The Gleaner for publishing Mark Brooks' letter for May 2, 2008. Jamaica imports over US$700 million in food each year and, despite all the subsidies and financial rescues for our agricultural sector, we continue to see dwindling output; soon, this dollar figure will top US$1 billion. Why do we think this is happening?

How ridiculous

In a Gleaner article by Kaci Hamilton published on October 21, 2008, her interview with scientist Dr Lyndon Johnson touted Jamaica as supposedly having the best climate, soil, terrain and rainfall, the most sunshine and the most-suited latitude and longitude in the tropics. With all this, how is it possible to fail? We should be able to just drop a seed anywhere and in an instant have a home garden, just like that. Really; how ridiculous!

I implore not only The Gleaner, but the ministers of agriculture and the environment to investigate Jamaica's soil problems - loss of quantity and quality, as the real failure behind Jamaica's failing agricultural grade. We are desperately trying to save the soil in the Blue and John Crow mountains by recommending that they be named as World Heritage Sites.

The September 2008 publication of the National Geographic magazine was dedicated to soil. I suggest this as very useful background reading for information on soil. One very important article outlined how Haiti is unable to feed itself because of its lack of topsoil. It is a distinct possibility that Jamaica may be heading down that road, but I fear that we may have our heads buried in the soil.

I am, etc.,

STEFAN HEMMINGS

kcheadboy96_97@yahoo.com

Kingston