MY APOLOGIES, if that headline impairs your appetite for today’s lunch. If you lived in Asia, Africa or Latin America, it might have the opposite effect on your taste buds and salivary glands. I’ll explain as we go along.
For a good 50 years or more I’ve wondered how much of what we eat is “real” food. Then, five years ago, I came upon a book by Michael Pollan titled In Defence Of Food in which he suggested: “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognise as food.”
Why your great grandmother? Because your mother and possibly your grandmother are as confused as the rest of us, so to be on the safe side, we should go back at least two generations to a time before the arrival of the processed foods of today.
Today’s little essay will not venture into the area of processed nutrition like the several artificial flavours and additives we willingly ingest daily. Rather, it focuses on the recent effort of my friend Winston “Jack” Dear, in a most graphic way, to bring, once again, to the attention of Barbadians the importance of locally-grown food and the struggle and sacrifice of farmer Anthony Nicholls, one of many such unsung heroes in our midst.
Jack Dear’s documentary Years Of Sacrifice had its premiere screening at the Grande Salle a month ago, followed by its first showing on CBC-TV a few nights later.
Not since Claude Graham’s weekly presentation of his excellent series Agriculture For National Development, screened every Friday at 8:30 p.m., has television been put to better use in Barbados.
The documentary came to life as a result of Jack’s love of cane juice. After buying a few bottles which, according to him, were “a bit off”, he got in touch with the producer who immediately explained the likely defect and they established a relationship that gave rise to the documentary.
Sharp-eyed photo-journalist that he is, Jack immediately saw the possibilities of bringing to life Mr Nicholls’ story, but not without much persuasion.
Mr Nicholls is a quiet unassuming farmer who does not court publicity.
Jack spent an entire year on Years Of Sacrifice and has been able to present the courage, determination and resilience of a man whose objective was not only to take on the odds, but to beat them.
The film, which runs for half-hour, also zeroes in on the plight of Barbadian farmers in their daily struggles to bring food at reasonable prices to Barbadian tables.
Throughout the documentary, Mr Nicholls imparts valuable vignettes of advice, such as: “When your back is up against the wall you can’t give up” and “I am one who feels that food is too expensive in this country.”
Mr Nicholls’ home-grown wisdom coincides with that of Dr Chelston Brathwaite, retired Barbadian director general of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), who warns: “Without a vibrant, modern food and agricultural sector, one part of our lands will be converted into real estate and the other part will be overtaken by bush, which will harbour rats, snails and monkeys and other pests.
“Leptospirosis, a disease of rats which affects human beings, is likely to become common. Cow itch is likely to dominate our landscape and this will be a menace for the population and tourists. The landscape will become ugly and Barbados could lose its reputation for being a green, beautiful country.”
A few days ago, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) suggested that edible insects could play a role against world hunger. Edible insects are being promoted as a low-fat, high-protein food for people, pets and livestock.
According to the UN, they come with appetizing side benefits, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and livestock pollution, creating jobs in developing countries and feeding millions of hungry people in the world.
In the documentary Mr Nicholls testifies: “I am no rice man; no cou cou man . . . . You can give me breadfruit, yam, potato, eddoe, green banana, every day. I eat what I produce.”
Stir-fried grasshoppers and baked cockroaches are not likely to find their way on the Barbadian menu anytime soon – unless, as agronomist Dr Frances Chandler feared last year, a period of starvation befalls us.
• Carl Moore was the first Editor of THE NATION and is a social commentator. Email: carlmoore@caribsurf.com
