Day+12+Bordeaux+Organic+Farms

The word we are going to use to describe today is AMAZING. We left our villa this morning and drove 30 minutes to Bordeaux farm where we toured the organic farm there. The purpose of the tour was to further examine the idea of sustainable development and the USDA as well as farmers' efforts to produce locally grown food. It was really amazing to see people using the land and what they had to produce all of their food. Some of the land was given to the farmers (many of whom are Rastafarian) from the government through cheap leases or for free. However, one of these farmers are squatting on unused land in the hills which is some of the worst land for farming and cultivating papaya, mangoes, peppers, collard greens, passion fruit, soursop, cashews, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant and so much more. We tried fresh passion fruit for the first time and Mr. Henneman picked us some fresh vegetables to bring home. The farms are located in a really hilly area, but they've used many different techniques to create beautiful and tasty vegetables and fruits. The farmers adhere to a system of multi-cropping and irrigate their farms using man-made dams. The multi-cropping deters the need for the use of pesticides and herbicides, which are not used on these farms at all. Mr. Henneman hosted the tour and talked a lot about how he does all of this work with very little help from the government.

 That night during our group meeting we talked about the agricultural industry and how only cash crops receive funding even though these types of crops (e.g. corn) are destroying the land and rely heavily on pesticide and herbicide use. We drew parallels with the organic farming in the islands to the urban farming movements stateside in cities like Detroit and Chicago. Professor Taylor talked about how the Catherine Ferguson Academy in Detroit for pregnant teenagers converted the parking lot into a garden where the girls not only take courses but also cultivate the land and learn more about nutrition and healthy eating. Also our host had his nephews working with him. He brought up the fact that it is more beneficial for them to learn these farming techniques than to be getting into trouble somewhere else. I really liked that he felt so strongly about them having something to do at the farm.  We hope to learn more about these movements occurring stateside when we come home.

