Backyard gardens seen as step to local food security by Gibson Sr.

POND ISLAND–Backyard gardening as a minor step to food security is promoted by Finance Minister Richard Gibson Sr.

“We should think seriously about doing things such as our own backyard gardening: growing our own tomatoes, sweet peppers, carrots, because pretty soon the prices of these items are going to go through the roof,” said the Minister on Wednesday. His call stems from his recent exposure to the need for food security at the annual World Eco-Agricultural Summit held in Beijing, China.

The harvest from a backyard garden would be lower food cost for the family and neighbours can trade their surplus with each other to further mitigate cost, said Gibson Sr.

Another spinoff, aside from lowering cost would be the reduction of imports of such food items. “It may be a drop on a hot plate, but it is something rather than nothing as opposed to having our money leaving the country for things we could probably do ourselves,” he said.

“We definitely have the ability to make our backyard gardens something that is productive and if we all do that we can cut down on our bills for at least vegetables substantially,” said Gibson Sr.

The Minister was invited to the Beijing meeting by the developer of the still-to-commence Pearl of China project, both to participate in the food security discussion and to talk about the pending project that should have started construction in the past weeks.

Gibson Sr. was full of praise for the Chinese capital, saying it was better than New York City, except for the lack of blue skies and severe air pollution. “Beijing is a wonderful city … it is larger than New York City. The streets are better shaped than New York City. The trees planted are much more in abundance than in New York,” he said.

The one major setback is “the air is polluted. You don’t see blue skies,” he said, the challenge for China is “to get better quality air and quality life. Pollution causes illnesses and increased cost for health care.”

Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/65823-backyard-gardens-seen-as-step-to-local-food-security-by-gibson-sr