Last week some of the board members of Soualiga Social Movement attended the town hall meeting with the subject "Hillside Conservation Act". The presentation was very informative and the civil servants present were able to answer most of the questions. However, we learned that no specific policies were in place regarding agriculture, besides the one for the ecological/agricultural section in Emilio Wilson Estate. Agriculture would fall under "Residential - To Be Determined". On the other hand, feasibility studies are being carried out to have the tunnels become a reality and negotiations with land owners already took place to purchase land to make provisions for these same tunnels.
Agriculture creates an environment which lends itself to carry out social programs. To name just a few: teach youngsters to "care", get people out of a stressful situation and guide them back onto the labour market and educational programs.
Without a doubt we can say that fresh local produce have preference over products from abroad, simply because the timeframe between the harvesting of produce to the consumer is much shorter than when the produce come from abroad.
Add to that the economic benefits like preventing money going abroad but circulating on the island, because produce being purchased locally instead of abroad. Or we can argue that shipping costs are eliminated and one layer of "sellers" will be eliminated. Shops, restaurants, hotels or even consumers can buy straight from the locations where the products are grown. This reducing of costs can be an incentive for our people to buy more fresh produce (increasing health) and it will contribute to reduce the cost of living. Cost efficiency can only be obtained when there is agriculture on a large scale. We can also argue that a healthier population has lower health care costs and we can even argue that increased health increases performances in learning and increases in performance on the job (higher production). It has been proven that a healthy educated society suffers from a low crime rate.
Based on the aforementioned we can easily conclude that agriculture has a significant influence on the improvement of a society. Without judging projects like the Justice Park, Airport expansion/upgrade and the envisioned tunnels we seriously wonder if the right priority is given to agriculture and agricultural programs. Calling a small piece of land allocated for agriculture in Emilio Wilson Estate giving priority to agriculture is like calling a bucket of water in the back yard a pool. We hope to see the same effort being taken in feasibility studies for agriculture and purchasing land for agriculture as for other projects by any government. We need a project that is beneficial socially, health wise and economically. We need agriculture. #sxmmovement
Soualiga Social Movement
