Buy fresh, buy local!

Third of a four-part series

At present, we have the Division of Agriculture and the Division of Fish and Wildlife (under the Department of Land and Natural Resources) that are statutorily responsible for agriculture and aquaculture sustainability in partnership with the Northern Marianas College land grant institution (CREES), the Sabalu Farmers Association, the Saipan Fisherman Association, the Department of Commerce that should be working in conjunction and not in competition with the newly formed CNMI Farmers Cooperative Association that is aimed at expanding the economic opportunities for local farmer and others.

Production farming is, indeed, a prerequisite to a healthy community, not only toward achieving our goal of local food security by having more of our food grown locally—as the CNMI is dependent for more than 90 percent on off-island shipments of food—to satisfy the local demand for fresh produce, fresh fruits, fresh value-added agricultural products, fresh daily catch, fresh beef, pork and poultry, and local herbs or seasoning, while above threshold or excess production dedicated to our export markets in the neighboring islands and other overseas destinations. The CNMI if it truly dedicates itself to making agriculture the prosperous industry that it was during the Japanese Administration, for instance.

For this to happen requires that we all stop shooting ourselves in the foot, stop promoting export production and imported food subsidy and begin with the local food sustainability and security model of locally grown food production for local supply and consumption. As the late Anthony Pellegrino once said: “Agriculture is our next biggest industry. We have the fertile land and the knowledge to produce tons of fruits and vegetables and we can become the food basket and be economically prosperous.” Guam, for example according to Pellegrino, imports more than $4 million on imported food every month and close to $50 million local revenues being exported annually to vendors outside Guam, instead of the money circulating within the Guam economy. The CNMI should not be too far behind on this revenue leakage or revenue export, second to currency remittances outside the CNMI.

Honolulu (Hawaii) Mayor Kirk Caldwell dubbed “food grown on Oahu for local consumption…ultimately as a security issue, because locally grown food will still be here for us to eat if the shipments stop.” Mayor Caldwell added that “[l]ocally grown good is fresher, tastier and better for the environment because we don’t have to burn fossil fuel to ship it to Oahu.”

If Hawaii considers local food production in locally grown food a matter of security concern and also a critical component to a healthy community through fresh vegetables and fruits, for instance, on what basis can the Commonwealth proffer in faring better by choosing imported and processed foods, especially since where we are located is much farther away from and in a remote part of America.

Though we have built local capacity for a thriving agriculture sector in our local economy, there remains today some overriding issues and challenges daunting our local farming community. These unresolved issues are disincentives to strong participation by local farmers in the agriculture industry. For these challenges frustrate not just local participation but impact on our ability to make the industry sustainable. Chief among these challenges are the unresolved water rate that penalized farmers at the Kagman farm plot and those other plots outside the Kagman farm community. The Kagman farmers have yet to benefit from a federally-funded watershed project that is part of the Kagman plot irrigation system.

The other challenge facing today’s local farmers is the unresolved land rental fee assessed at the Kagman plot and other public lands outside of the Kagman farm plots.

The farmers association will continue its advocacy on a rental fee farm plot assessed at $0.01 per square meter. This rate may appear minuscule. However, when the acreage required for farmers to reach break even in the industry is taken into account, the recommended rental land fee is both reasonable, and more importantly, a necessary policy in building and sustaining an evolving agriculture economy and related sectors in order to achieve a comparatively high multiplier ratio and impact on the local economy.

From a macro policy vantage point, the requested farm plot rental fee at $0.01 per square meter provides a strong incentive for increased industry and market penetration by residents into agriculture and related chain of agriculture activities by local farmers. Having more local farmers enter and participate in the agriculture production sector builds economies of scale necessary to offset the opportunity cost that becomes a disincentive for local residents to enter the evolving local agricultural sector. A favorable integrated policy combination on plot rental and irrigation fee and responsible use of pesticides would go a long way in making the local agriculture industry serve the local community, expand the tax base, and increase production for overseas market but would ultimately create the critical mass for a sustainable industry in the long haul.

To be continued. (By RAMON BLAS CAMACHO)