Responding to the regional food security challenge ahead
At a time when there has been something of a lull in the flow of information regarding the progress being made in what, admittedly, is the opening ‘stanza’ of the implementation of the regional socalled 25x2025 plan to reduce extra regional food imports, the news that St. Lucia appears to be taking its own steps to respond to its own food security challenges is to be commended.
St. Lucia’s initiative is even more noteworthy when account is taken of the fact that agriculture in Trinidad and Tobago is being compromised by flooding and that, reportedly, this has resulted in threats by farmers in T&T to ‘walk away’ from their farms until the rainy season is over.
We must, of course, take into account, as well, the fact that the full force of the ‘rainy season’ that habitually ravages large parts to Guyana has not yet materialized, bearing in mind that Guyana is, by some distance the region’s unquestioned food basket, and, moreover, that Guyana’s contribution to the creation of the envisaged Regional Food Terminal is critical.
St. Lucia, we are advised, through a recent News Americas media report, has “rolled out a number of government programs to increase food security, boosting its agricultural production and minimizing its reliance on imports.” Frankly, it is more than a little heartening to learn of St. Lucia’s reported growing pursuit of efforts to enhance its domestic food security credentials. This suggests that St. Lucia is very much among the countries in the region that are mindful of the extant global food security crisis and of the likelihood that it could grow worse. Contextually, it must be commended for its efforts to seek to stave off a security crisis of its own.
These are by no means times in which we can afford to spare CARICOM’s feelings over its protracted dilatoriness, over a number of years, in the matter of acting with a sense of urgency to fashion the promised framework for what we are now describing as a regional food terminal. Here, much of the responsibility must be placed at the feet of Guyana which, particularly, has been decidedly ineffective in leading the way in the matter of regional food security, up until now.
Recently, word came from the Barbados Agriculture Minister Indar Weir on the progress of the recently agreed food terminal project though we must wait to see it through to its conclusion before we begin – as is the practice – to crow about its accomplishment.
This raises the question, surely, as to whether, a mechanism should not now be inserted into the process that allows for the periodic updating of the countries of the region on the pace of progress towards the full establishment of the Food Terminal initiative. That responsibility, one is inclined to suggest, should fall to the CARICOM Secretariat. It would be an error of significant proportions if the people of the Caribbean were to allow regional governments to ‘go quiet’ on them in the matter of the creation of a facility that might well make a difference between sufficiency and crisis for some Caribbean territories in the period ahead.
Such responsibility accruing to Guyana in the matter of the successful implementation of the Food Terminal project places the ‘burden’ on the country’s agriculture sector, more particularly the state-run institutions, to ‘hold up its end.’ Guyana must constantly remind itself that the rest of the region is relying on us to deliver.
To return to the measures that have already reportedly been taken in the matter of its own food security, there very
much appears to be a significant measure of forward thinking in the St. Lucia initiative. That initiative would appear to have been underpinned by the assumption that (given what remains the imponderable of determining a time frame for an end to Russia’s hostilities in Ukraine) it would, at this time, be foolhardy to hazard a guess in the matter of an end to the prevailing global food security challenge that is probably likely to become worse before it gets better.
Ahead of his swearing in for his second tilt at the presidency of Brazil, Luis Ignacio Da Slva Lula arrived in Egypt for the meeting of COP 27 to a welcome that could hardly have been bettered had he already ascended to office.
It was, in part, loud and raucous, as Brazilian celebratory events usually are, the chants of Lula! Lula! from the army of Brazilians who had made their way to Egypt Brazil to stage their own early celebration of his return to the peak of Brazilian politics.
It was as much the populist image that the one-time trade unionist had secured during his first tilt at the presidency as the promise of his continued focus on reining in the degradation of the Amazon, huge swathes of which are part of Brazil’s territory, that afforded him the tumultuous welcome when he arrived in Egypt. COP 27 could hardly have been more timely for Lula.
There still remains more than a month before Lula returns to high office but the
Setting aside the wider global imponderables associated with food security, going forward, the island territories of the region have their own ever present ‘demons’ to fight in the form of their collective vulnerability to inclement weather, hurricanes, no less, that perennially threaten their very existence. This, when it is added to a condition of incrementally worsening climate change, arguably challenges CARICOM member countries, like never before, to be their brothers’ keepers.
At COP 27 Lula seeks to restore faith in the Amazon’s environmental retrieval
staging of COP 27 at this time could hardly have been a more appropriate opportunity for him to announce his ‘second coming.’ He returns to the presidency of Brazil restored to him on a second ballot in October.
Lula’s premature entry onto the international stage in Egypt on the back of a welcome to COP 27 that far exceeded that which was afforded other Heads of Government was due largely to what is known to have been his pursuit of the preservation of the Amazon Rainforest during his earlier term in office.
The Amazon rainforest remains the largest continuous forest in the world and the most vulnerable to despoliation.
With more than half of the Amazon rainforest located within Brazil’s territorial limits, it contributes billions of dollars to the country’s economy from products that include rubber and timber. The huge downside here, however, is that, by and large, fingers have been pointed at Brazil
for showing scant regard for the huge environmental significance of the Amazon, Lula winning the credit for paying much more attention than his predecessors to putting a brake on the ravaging of what is considered by far the most valued piece of environmentally linked real estate anywhere on earth.
Lula’s arrival in Egypt earlier this week coincided with the assembling most of the world’s most powerful leaders hunkered down in talks over what to do about turning back the climate ‘clock’ that is now widely believed to be ticking ‘overtime.’
Unsurprisingly, he seized the golden political opportunity that arose in Egypt to undertake to bring an end to what has become the rampant destruction of the Amazon. His seeming desire to try to cause Brazil to become a leader in the fight against climate change by aggressively targeting the despoiling of the Amazon could well turn out to be the primary item on his political agenda, going forward.
Accorded the signal honor of addressing a forum in Egypt designed in large measure for Heads of Government, Lula transformed his appearance into a ‘top billing’ event, much of what he had to say attended by rousing applause.
He undertook what unquestionably, will be the huge task of cracking down on illegal deforestation, a demanding task since the Amazon, in its hugeness, forms part of the territory of nine other countries, the other eight (8) being Peru, Bolivia, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana with, and Ecuador.
During his earlier tenure in office Lula had seemingly set much store by cracking down on the illegal deforestation of the Amazon, an undertaking that would, if it can be accomplished, would position the second Lula political administration as the unquestioned champion among climate changers, globally.
Lula’s already boisterous undertakings in the matter of the intended emphasis which his administration seeks to place on the Amazon will have the effect of departing from what is believed to be policies embraced by his predecessor during his tenure in office that are believed to have done considerable harm to what, given the accelerated focus on pushing back climate change, is seen, contextually, as probably the most valuable piece of real estate anywhere on the planet.