"particularly whether it should subsidise and assist local producers at the expense of consumer welfare and lower prices". I work at Abaco Big Bird and I find this amusing because I have seen stores put a 100% markup on some our products and the worst ever was a 287% markup on some of our items. The lower prices are not benefiting the consumer or being passed along.

There is actually a very large sod farm on Abaco several hundred acres or more and they are having a terrible time right now because so much sod is being imported. I know they had to lay off people a few months ago. Part of these foreign investment incentives (I call them subsidies) and tax excemptions that are given to new hotels and resorts should include stipulations on the heads of agreements that they need to buy locally produce items if available within say 10-15% more or less of average market prices.

Modern farming is not all about imported back breaking hard labour that you guys are talking about. There are lots of good jobs in a healthy agricultural business or industry. Medium to Large scale farms need all kinds of people and support business to keep them running, mechanics, accountants, secretaries, managers, veterinarians, horticulturalists, electricians, plumbers, refrigeration people, truck drivers, marketing personal, IT people and the list goes on. It is not just some poor soul out in a field digging up potatoes in the hot sun with his bare hands on 1 acre of land. Bahamians have a grossly misconstrued view of farming. One person earlier mentioned about the poor soil in the Bahamas and only hydro farming could work but it is expensive. If you have a healthy farm and marine setup do you know how much land a chicken farms waste cant generate into rich soil or the waste from a fish processing facility being composted and made into dirt that is then tilled into our poor soil and this is a very cheap way to make soil. And the government has to play a role in this. There is no country on this planet that has a healthy agriculture sector that is not protected and supported by their government. There is no such thing as cheap free food. Somewhere along the line the farmers are getting tax breaks, or government money or protection so they can sell their product for more up front. Will the Bahamas ever have 100% food security? The answer is no but we maybe can extend out 1 weeks worth of food supply in this country to maybe 1 or 2 months so we wont starve or the shop runs out of food if the boat is late. Our government heavily subsidizes our tourism sector.