AGRICULTURE has developed globally over the years from small scale subsistence farming to modern industrial agriculture involving the use of high technology, large fields and/or numbers of livestock, high resource inputs (pesticides, fertilizers, and so on), and a high level of mechanisation.

These operations achieve economies of scale and require large amounts of land and machinery.

In recent years, however, some aspects of intensive industrial agriculture have been the subject of increasing debate worldwide.

There has been concern over the effect of intensive agriculture on the environment; for example, increasing contamination of groundwater and wetlands by inorganic fertilisers and livestock waste.

Barbados Water Authority, in an attempt to protect our groundwater, has engaged consultants to review the existing zoning policy and develop a sustainable water protection system capable of dealing with emerging concerns from chemical and biological agents, and using modern technologies to protect and treat our groundwater.

In her book Animal, Vegetable Miracle – A Year Of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver alludes to the fact that many people over the years have created an "environmental overdraft" on the lands they have inhabited. She also notes that Americans put almost as much fossil fuel in their refrigerators as in their cars, using about 17 per cent of the nation's energy on agriculture, a close second to vehicular use.

She goes on to say, though, that getting the crop from seed to harvest takes only one-fifth of the total oil used to produce food. The lion's share is consumed in the trip from the farm to your plate where fossil fuels are used for processing, packaging, refrigeration, warehousing and transport of food items.

In Barbados, we have a similar situation where our annual food import bill is over 500 million dollars and much of our food has travelled thousands of miles and utilised considerable quantities of fossil fuels to reach our tables.

Kingsolver notes that if every American citizen ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce they would reduce their country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels per week.

Similarly, if we in Barbados, especially at this time of high energy costs, and global food and financial crises, were to support our local farmers and return to the consumption of more basic local foods, fresh from the farm, we could reduce our food import bill, increase our food security and reduce our "environmental overdraft".

To quote Kingsolver, "small changes in buying habits can make big differences". "Becoming a less energy-dependent nation may just need to start with a good breakfast," she added.

In Barbados, that breakfast could be farm-fresh eggs and milk, fresh golden apple or bajan cherry juice, grapefruit, figs, cassava hats, pumpkin fritters, spinach cakes, flying fish fingers, plantain and many other local delicacies instead of all the high priced imported cereals and meats.

Furthermore, we need to grow the crops which are suited to our conditions and find interesting and creative ways of preparing them which will be attractive to the younger generation.

For instance, the breadfruit which is so ignored that its fruit can be seen rotting on the ground when in season, could be a perfect substitute for the white potato which is imported in enormous quantities. As a colleague noted recently, why can't you order grilled dolphin on a bed of breadfruit cou cou instead of a bed of mashed potato or rice? At least one local restaurant serves a wonderful breadfruit soup and breadfruit fries instead of potato fries. Why aren't others following suit?

However, we need not only to produce food, but also to use agricultural practices which will conserve water, protect our soils from erosion, utilise local inputs where possible, make the most efficient use of non-renewable resources and integrate biological control methods, while maintaining the economic viability of farms.

In other words, we need to practise sustainable agriculture and be good stewards of our environment for future generations.

* The Agrodoc has over 35 years experience in agriculture in Barbados, operating at different levels of the sector. Send any questions or comments to: The Agrodoc,

C/o Nation Publishing Co. Ltd, Fontabelle, St Michael.