Improving Food Security in the Caribbean: Building Capacity in Local Small-Scale Farming Systems

Abstract

The food security challenges of the Caribbean, and the developing world more generally, cannot be solved by dependence upon food imports. Although globally there is enough food to feed everyone, world hunger remains a dire problem. Our view is that to achieve real food security, developing countries must become more food self-sufficient by increasing productivity, diversifying and expanding the range of crops with a focus on maximizing the use of traditional foods, reducing postharvest losses, improving the marketing and distribution of farm produce, promoting urban agriculture, and increasing women's participation in the food security endeavor. Our position is framed within the general principles of food sovereignty (McMichael, 2009b), or as some prefer, food democracy (Lang, 2009a). Food sovereignty speaks to the right of local farmers and peoples to exert more control over food and agriculture (Beckford and Bailey, 2009). Windfuhr and Jonsen (2005) described food sovereignty as a platform for rural revitalization at the global level based on equitable distribution of resources, farmers having control over resources, and the ability to supply healthy, local food. A food sovereignty approach advocates the right of people to be able to protect and regulate domestic agriculture and trade in order to achieve sustainable development goals: to determine the extent to which they want to be self-reliant and to restrict dumping of products in their markets.