By Lynford Simpson, Staff Reporter
SENATOR FRED Hamaty has urged the Government to take steps to secure the local food supply, in light of the recent terrorist attacks on the United States and the possibility for large-scale contamination of food and water.
He made the comments in the Senate, Friday, while contributing to the debate on the Safeguard Bill, which seeks to protect local producers, particularly farmers, from cheap imports.
The Bill is in keeping with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Agreement of 1995 which allows countries to introduce temporary measures to protect their local markets from injure or damage as a result of unfair competition. Opposition Senators are of the view, however, that the Bill is being introduced too late to save an already devastated agricultural sector. They pointed to the beef and dairy industries which they said have been devastated.
The debate was eventually suspended until this Friday, after nearly three hours.
The Senator, a Westmoreland attorney, pointed to steps taken by authorities in the United States to secure the country, since terrorists destroyed the twin towers of New York City's World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon in Washington D.C.
"Homeland security for most people (in the USA) means security from terror, improving airline safety, renewed military defence," Senator Hamaty said.
"In Jamaica we need to make sure that homeland security is about food security. We must as a nation wake up and ensure a secure and safe regional food supply," he stressed.
Jamaicans, he said, had taken for granted the fact that they can access all kinds of food from all over the world. "For the moment terrorism is on our minds, when they attack buildings killing innocent people. What will happen when they corrupt large food and water supplies or destroy vital infrastructure on which globalised and vulnerable food security depend?" he asked.
He observed that most of the food consumed in Jamaica had travelled an average of 1,000 miles, making the food system "vulnerable in the field, in storage and in transit".
He suggested the Ministry of Agriculture play the lead role in ensuring that each community produce at least one-third of the food required by its residents, a major leap from the less than five per cent he said was being produced currently.
He proposed a "farm to school movement" which connects school and universities to local farmers, to bring fresh food and fruits to student cafeterias.
