For several years now the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organiza-tion (FAO) has been urging a more robust response by countries to what is widely believed to be an impending global food crisis. That call has attracted varying degrees of attention in the Caribbean region though much of what the experts say about regional attitudes to food security is hardly reassuring.
In some Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, Trinidad and Tobago being the standout territory in this regard, long-standing farming traditions have given way to a rise in the consumption of imported foods. In the case of Trinidad and Tobago, observers blame this development on the twin-island Republic’s oil wealth. In other instances, the proliferation of imported foods is associated with the pressures of a regional tourism sector that steers the culinary culture in the direction of catering to the tastes of the extra-regional visitors.
Agro-processing is the transforming of products originating from agriculture, forestry and fisheries into
