New survey sounds Caribbean food security alarm bells

Almost certainly to the surprise of considerable numbers of Caribbean people, we are being told that the number of us facing “moderate to severe” levels of food insecurity now stands somewhere around 4.1 million.

A Caribbean Community (Caricom) survey has revealed that the number of people who find themselves in that condition in the English-speaking Caribbean has risen to 4.1 million or 57 per cent of the population. The findings were published in the latest report of the recent Fifth Round of the Caribbean Community Food Security and Livelihoods Survey. Caricom Assistant Secretary-General Joseph Cox was quoted as saying that this represents “a dramatic increase of 1.3 million since February 2022”.