In the event that a catastrophe results in the halt of food imports to The Bahamas for a long period of time, the government is only prepared to feed the population for three months and the Minister of Agriculture Alfred Gray admitted that this reality is “unacceptable.”
Mr. Gray’s comments came during a ceremony to observe the 34th annual World Food Day where some 150 countries around the globe took part in the international initiative to promote the eradication of global hunger.
“The Bahamas is no exception to the food insecurity that pervades around the world, we have no means of feeding ourselves as a country, we have a three month supply of food stored by the government just in case something catastrophic happens, we can only go for three months without everybody going hungry, that is unacceptable and so the government started the Bahamas Agricultural Marine Science Institute (BAMSI) which we believe will go a long way in producing some of the foods we need in a sufficient quantity to supplement that which we must import because we buy $900 million worth of food and if we could grow $300 million of that, its $300 million that will stay in The Bahamas,” he said.
“Today is significant in that regard and as minster responsible for food and food security it was my obligation to sensitise those in attendance of the need to participate in this global effort to eradicate hunger.”
The ceremony at Arawak Cay was held in conjunction to a booth exhibition where a number of local vendors displayed their produce from backyard farming.
“World Food Day was a day set aside by the United Nations and the Food and Agricultural Organisation to focus attention on world hunger and how best we as a people could eradicate hunger throughout the world in the shortest possible time, that means every country must participate in growing something to feed themselves and if every country participate in that way then there will be no need to talk about world hunger because every country would be seeking to feed itself,” Mr. Gray said.
World Food Day was held under the theme, “Family Farming: Feeding The World, Caring For The Earth.”
