Time to eat what we grow

THE EDITOR, Madam:

As the political spin of the present Labour Government rises to incredible crescendo, (e.g. the recent NHT procedure), the silence of the tiny beleaguard opposition shrinks to a whisper – ‘the gloomy whisper of the lamb’.

Apart from global warming, which has generated a record Atlantic hurricane season and the subsequent battering of Jamaica by incessant and devastating flood rains, the main crisis facing the nation is the continual sliding of the value of the Jamaican dollar on the foreign exchange market.

The staggering and unbearable pressure created by this fiscal disaster should be clear to all. Employment is low due to COVID-19. Prices are rising at a terrific rate. The masses, under the illusion of a helpful government, have rolled over and succumbed, being pressed like a soft cassava bammy by horrendous economic and political coercion.

Our main dollar earner – tourism – has collapsed in COVID’s sickening deck of cards. To the powers that be, it should be undeniably obvious that urgent alternative protocols must be implemented to earn foreign exchange to placate the insatiable obsession of traders and retailers to purchase their weekly imported goods, which must – 80 per cent of the time – be paid for in US dollars. This is the core of our fiscal crisis. If we as a nation can somehow subdue our lust for imported chemical-laced foods, we would be in a better position.

Take this agenda out of the dollar, the Jamaican dollar would automatically stabilise and the same US dollar be sensibly invested in the struggling agricultural sector, which could then provide a vibrant agro-industrial machinery with constant materials that could then be exported and earn dollars.

So as suggested, the economic platform would dramatically shift. Instead of hungry buyers, we would be expedient sellers of our own wonderful products like, to name a few, Jamaica ginger, nutmeg, pimento, guava, and the excellent Gros Michel Banana that is in tremendous demand in Germany, France, and Belgium.

Our best minds should be positively used to drive our export sector, not squeezing out the life of the nation to placate the watched and uncaring dollar traders and speculative sellers. For once, let us prove our independent mantra. Grow what we eat and eat what we grow. Jamaica nice, who can beat our gungo peas soup with pumpkin and yellow yam?

WINSTON COHEN