Many benefits to growing your own food

AGRICULTURAL specialist Osmond Harewood wants Barbadians to keep in mind that by growing what they eat they know exactly what they are putting into their bodies.

According to the Field Officer at the Rural Development Commission (RDC), while there are different grades of foods being grown and produced internationally, it is not always possible to know exactly what grade is coming to Barbados.

“We know chemicals have to be used to preserve something. So if it is preserving the fruit, imagine what it is doing to our bodies when it breaks down. If we grow our own foods here, we do not need to use chemicals to preserve it,” Harewood said, while delivering remarks during a recent RDC-sponsored “Grow What You Eat” seminar for members of the public.

Harewood explained to those gathered that while agriculture is more hands on than practical, they have opportunities to plant in a little pot, their backyards, or even an entire field.
“We have to get this thing right today,” he declared.

Harewood, a Dominican by birth, shared his personal experience of surviving hurricane David which flattened his country in 1979. He said if it had not been for banana, coconut and other trees, he would not have been living.

“I would have not been here standing with you, because after hurricane David, Dominica was wiped out. In 2017, Dominica was flattened again. Imagine when you don’t have anything to eat and a hurricane strikes your country, then what happens.

“So what Rural is trying to say to you is that it is not just about your food bill, but it is also about the ability and the capacity that we need, to not allow the slavery mentality to fool us that we have to come away from agriculture and take our children from it, when in fact we need to feed ourselves,” he said. (AH)

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