The Island That Couldn't Feed Itself

A remarkable thing happened last week and it was detailed in an article by Jonathon M. Katz in the Huffington Post.  Bill Clinton is continuing his work in Haiti to help direct the humanitarian assistance following the earthquake and develop plans to improve the perennial "Failed State" status of this troubled country. 
Katz Reports:

Decades of inexpensive (food) imports – especially rice from the U.S. – punctuated with abundant aid in various crises have destroyed local agriculture and left impoverished countries such as Haiti unable to feed themselves. 


It looks to me like Haiti is the reverse of Cuba.  Isolated by trade embargo and the collapse of Communism, Cuba was forced to feed itself - without petroleum based agriculture.  Katz Continues:

...world leaders focused on fixing Haiti are admitting for the first time that loosening trade barriers has only exacerbated hunger in Haiti and elsewhere.

They're led by former U.S. President Bill Clinton – now U.N. special envoy to Haiti – who publicly apologized this month for championing policies that destroyed Haiti's rice production. Clinton in the mid-1990s encouraged the impoverished country to dramatically cut tariffs on imported U.S. rice.

This is remarkable since it is a 180 degree reversal of global trade policy that included NAFTA, which Clinton campaigned for and the US, Canada and Mexico signed into law in 1993.  Clinton said:

"It may have been good for some of my farmers in Arkansas, but it has not worked. It was a mistake," Clinton told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on March 10. "I had to live everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else."

Local farmers were put out of business, told they could not compete. And the island, which had not been dependent on rice or imported food aid before, is now importing 51% of all the food it consumes. Many local farms are gone and the farmers have moved to the cities. 

Clinton's goal was to import cheap food to feed a poor population while creating a market for US rice farmers. But now, there is nothing for Haiti to build a sustained economic recovery on. So this week, Clinton will go to the UN to seek millions to invest in rebuilding local agriculture to end reliance on imports.

Even Haiti's most powerful food importers have joined the push for locally produced food.

"I would prefer to buy everything locally and have nothing to import," said businessman Reginald Boulos, who is also president of Haiti's chamber of commerce.

The effort will also be part of a new UN backed initiative to support local agriculture in poor countries.  But what about us? 
Is our farming economy any better off than Haiti's?  How much food do we import now? What has happened to local beef, hog, egg, chicken and dairy producers as cheap imports have flooded our markets?  And how much money will it cost to rebuild what we are allowing to die through neglect?  Haiti raises those questions.  And Bill Clinton, the man who says that he alone is responsible for bringing us to this point, is looking for the answers.  
     

Spring Planning for Spring Planting

Looking forward to spring at our house means looking at seed catalogs, planning our farm rotations and planting expectations in our minds.  For the past few weeks, the farm blog has been at Fairview Gardens.  This time I'll give you a bit of a preview of our gardens and fields for 2010 with the hope that, however they might turn out, you'll keep us in mind at Dunn Creek Farm when you need fresh local produce for a summer supper or fall preserving.

For our friends in SoCal, through the States and around the world, this is my chance to share a bit about what we do and how it  works out that we can plant in the spring, harvest in the fall and let the farm sleep for the winter while we work in California.  This is our last year for that, because we're moving to the farm full time this summer. But our stories have interested more than a few urban folk who wonder how we do it - and if they can do it too. All I can say is, yes you can.  Just be prepared to keep at it for a while. This is our tenth year in PEI.

So, here we are in the front field where we grow  veggies. We intercrop white clover and annual rye between rows.  We plant in bedrows that I form with a tool bar with shovel and points, so there's no real plowing here and minimal tillage - mostly to incorporate organic material and prepare beds for planting.  I'm still learning the timing of cover crop/cash crop rotations. And I'm focusing on learning how to build soil through cover crop and rotation. I haven't flipped planting rows into the intercrop rows yet but if I goof, I have rows ready.    

This is how I finished the front field last fall.  Some of the rows were green manure cropped for the summer with oats and vetch.  When they were ready, I mowed them and disc-ed in the residue.  In the crop rows I disc-ed the row and then spread finished manure/compost which I covered with rock-weed (sea weed) from Poverty Beach.  Many people ask me about the salt content of the seasweed.  I have not had a problem.  Old time farmers often used this material and by spreading it in the fall, you have many months of rain and snow rinsing any residual salt out.

These red potatoes were grown from certified organic PEI seed.  I buy as much seed from local sources as I can.  Vesey's carries these seed potatoes and I buy other seed stock from Vesey's because they have an excellent trial garden program in York, PEI.  This means that the seeds I buy have been tested in similar soil and weather conditions and are selected for quality.  Local potato growers are creating an organic market that helps keep money working for us at home on the island.  And - they really taste great too!

The asparagus arrived in early May last year. Keep us in mind for tender fresh Asparagus along with the lobster for your Mother's Day Supper this year!  We'll have a lot of variety planted this year and high hopes to see you stop by the farm for fresh greens, peas, carrots, beets, potatoes and so much more.  We'll be selling at the gate as before and hope we'll once again have produce in stock for you at Naburrs Garden Center in Brudenell/Montague.  And this year we'll get your orders ready for pickup/delivery too!         

If there's something special you'd like this year,  please drop a note in the comments section below and tell us about it.

We're eager to get started on our new adventure and I invite you to follow along here on the blog as we move from the city and get the farm up and running this spring!