BEYOND everything that we place a high value on, religion, Gods or God, mythical propositions of self-importance, wealth in precious and conspicuous metals, academic achievements; all these come secondary to the initial factor that to be able to think, to be altruistic, benevolent and noble, it would seem, or more, it’s obvious that one must first, be well fed. By choice as this example indicates, to then denounce the well-embraced menu of the social kindred towards embracing before all- the Mage’s esoteric quest of a constrained relationship with victuals. We in Guyana produce food, but what we produce is not well managed, especially now with floods, there has been no warning or indication of what attention should be given to perishables emerging from areas with floodwaters. What should we buy, what should we turn away from? Neither is there an account on how do some produce, fruits etc, find themselves on the shelves or vendor stands when they are supposed to be out of season; is it natural, or are dangerous, unnatural methods used to achieve this?

The question of food is indeed a serious area of discussion because it is either life-enhancing or menacingly life-threatening, especially with what is known of the ‘dangers to the life of consumers’ that devastating chemicals can pose if opportunistically used to produce ‘Frankenstein’ fruit and vegetables. There are ample reasons to relate this. I did see some time ago more than one IPED mini-documentary on pesticide practices, but I doubt that they are used widely. I still have haunting memories from years ago when I supported logistics in the management of a farm and the options that other farm managers up the same creek were proposing to produce fruit out of season. This has become more important with the number of food outlets opening up – small, medium and large. Again, I must repeat It was through the death of an acquaintance many years ago who had died from eating a fruit (pawpaw) that was on sale while saturated with a dangerous chemical, I penned a letter to the newspapers. I did as a result do some Edutainment work in the field with the ‘Pesticides and Toxic Chemicals Board’ with the then Registrar ‘Basdeo Dwarka,’ who wanted an approach to reach farmers who were literacy- challenged. I provided two in-house cartoon characters and a document was prepared. Unfortunately, he was not on the job long after that, and a drop in the pool without follow up was what it was – a spark that could not ignite. Historically, the civilisations that mastered early the agrarian culture and animal husbandries like Sumer, Khemet, Mahenjo Daro, and their kindred states were then relieved to have space to explore the Kosmic language and develop indelible contributions to humankind, the first preservation Agri-silos were recorded in ancient Khemet and went with early migrations into other parts of Africa. In comparison to the nomadic peoples and the so-called hungry warrior nations that were driven by the hostile geography and reluctant soil that they emerged from to steal, conquer and dominate the more advanced peoples, on the pretext of attributing the fertile, stolen lands, and the methods of that heritage to themselves. Should we compare, for example, the sea peoples and others whom the Sumerians referred to as uncivilised peoples from beyond? The invader most times had always developed weapons of war and approaches to the savagery that was beyond the comprehension of the better-fed nations with their advanced Guilds that they were invading, to the hungry nomad or ravishing seafarer; human principles and humanity were never inherent. The impetus of the culture of greed and inhuman justification lay in access to balanced and adequate food, natural medicines and their related indigenous methods of preservation and preparation, gold and precious metals were the bounty, but plantations, slavery and caste systems were the pivotal priorities when the analyst of the crime is sensibly completed, then the Gods of justification are imposed, bearing civilizing standards, of who is better and more deserving of the loot. Therefore, in a country like ours, why should we be purchasing vegetables (especially Greens) that turn into mush after two days? On enquiry the common answer is “Deh spraying de greens, even some fruits bassman”; this is a situation of a threat to health locally, and a threat to penetrating the international market. For this article, the local issue is first and foremost.

What lies before us is placing a value of food sufficiency, the old standard of ‘Eat what we grow’ and understand what we can grow, our fertile lands, flora and fauna forest reserves, rivers and seas must become not tomorrow, but now, the sacred places that they are in our psyche.