Government of Saint Luca

Go to Homepage

[Feedback]

[Site Map]

[Contact Us]

Search this Site

Caribbean people called upon to create greater link between agriculture, heath and education


Governor General
Prime Minister
The Cabinet
The Senate
House of Assembly
St. Lucia Ambassadors
The Constitution
The Staff Orders

National Television Network

Saint Lucia Gazette
Press Releases
Speeches
Features
Notices
Vacancies

Saint Lucia 25th Independence Celebrations

About Saint Lucia
Frequently Asked Questions
Web Links
Government Directory
Browse by Agency
Site Help
Subscribe to NEMO News
Updates to Hurricane Frances

Weather Information Service Number

(758) 454-3452

Contact: Rose Marie Harris

Wednesday, September 29, 2004 – After a two year tour of duty of Saint Lucia and the Caribbean, Sub-regional representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for the Caribbean, Dr. Winston Rudder believes that Caribbean people must pay greater attention to the intricate link between agricultural food production and health and education.

Dr. Rudder, who was in St. Lucia on September 29 to bid farewell to the Government of Saint Lucia and officials of the Ministry of Agriculture, explained the FAO’s involvement here in a number of areas: “More recently a key endeavour has to do with food security. St. Lucia, is part of a regional project dubbed the “CARIFORUM Food Security Project”, in which we seek to enhance the capacity within individual countries to deal with the food production, using appropriate technology and getting the farmers more involved and organised.”

Two other aspects to that initiative have to do with improving the marketing and information aspect. “It is one thing to produce food, but the other thing is to get it to market and to know which markets are more appropriate for the food that is produced. The third aspect, which is increasingly important in the context of Caribbean development, is to see how one can link more closely, agricultural food production with health and education”, Dr. Rudder said.

Explaining further, Dr. Rudder pointed out that what they are finding out is that it is not sufficient to find food to fill the stomach. He said that there must be a focus on food quality, food safety, the right types of food, because increasingly, “as we seek to deal with the issue of hunger and poverty, there is another side of the coin, and that is, even when people are getting enough food, they are not consuming the correct foods, and what we are seeing are patterns of health problems developing, such as non-communicable diseases”, citing these as obesity, heart, diabetes and certain forms of cancer. These he said are directly related to the quality of food that people eat and the lack of balance in their diet. “So we are concerned about relating food production policy to health policy, to nutrition policy, and much more integrated involvement of agriculture into the overall development of the country.”

Dr. Rudder’s employment with the FAO comes to an end on October 31st, 2004. While on island, Dr. Rudder met with Agriculture officials and the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr. Cosmos Richardson.


 

 


Home ] Up ] Search 2004 Press Releases ] [Site Help]

© 2004 Government Information Service. All rights reserved.

Read our privacy guidelines.