Submitted by Readydone
Gale and her family paid a visit to my farm at Bairds village recently. She was the usual type of visitor. She proceeded to share that she has done some research and is very interested in agriculture for food production at home. It is the usual type of thing I hear. Many people are curious about aquaponics and are surprised to find a working system in Barbados and always take the opportunity and visit. I always welcome, this particular visitor. Gale asked all the usual questions but when she asked – why is there not a culture of domestic food production in Barbados because we have very conducive weather , the answer hit me.
We have free garbage collection; it’s that simple, free disposal of all our organic waste means we throw away that valuable resource that should be used to make compost we are sending it straight to the landfills. Compost is the absolute key to every productive kitchen garden, it has the ability to sustain a large population of micro life forms in the soil, without it you get very poor results. When you sweep your house you sweep out dirt, it has all the constituents of soil yet you can sense it has no life and could not even grow elephant grass, then look at real soil, same materials but the micro heard is alive and active, so it sticks together, it holds water, and most importantly grows food. These microscopic critters take care of our plants root zone and provide the conditions that promote active plant growth.
There is an imperative need for Barbadians to become aware of wastage as a society and I think a small fee should be put on waste collection, or just privatize the thing (joke), but it is one place social reform would get a lot of bang for the buck. I want to see Barbados feed itself. This would be a good step in that direction.
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