Food Security In The Bahamas

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The Bahamas has had a continuous struggle with food security and scarce resources spent on importing food for Bahamians. As a developing nation the Bahamas has faced disadvantages when it comes to sustainable living and providing our own food for the survival of citizens. In the search for food security in the Bahamas the definition must be clear and understood. Food security is achieved when people have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate food that meets their dietary needs. Presently, in the Bahamas the government should be implementing methods in the agriculture industry to promote the idea of creating a sustainable food supply for Bahamians. Developing a food security strategy in the Bahamas would be the foundation…show more content…
The food imported in the Bahamas has an adverse effect on Bahamians health, when you go to a grocery store and you pick up a can and read the label one of the first thing you notice is the it says export only. This an issue that must be addressed because the Bahamas does not have a bureau of standards on food items imported for consumption in the Bahamas. This means that any product rejected by the country that it is produced in can be sold to the Bahamas without meeting the producing countries bureau of standards. Secondly, when you continue to read the food item label and read the list of ingredients in the product you will notice a large amount of preservatives, sugar, fats and salt. These contribute to the health issues Bahamians face such as obesity, diabetes, cholesterol and high blood pressure. The absence of a standard of bureau for food imported to the Bahamas is an advantage for the grocery stores because the food is cheap, however, it is detrimental to Bahamians in the long term because the risk of health issues due to the food we consume increases in…show more content…
The four pillars are firstly, availability which describes the supply side of food security and the level of production. The Bahamas needs multiple large-scale productions of food to sufficiently provide sustainable food supply for Bahamians. Secondly, access to an adequate supply of food which requires a greater policy focus on income and employment, markets and prices, and should also reflect intra-household distribution, as this can be an important factor. When looking at the average income of Bahamians the percentage of money spent on food is high due to the large amount of food imported in the Bahamas. With the establishment of a sustainable food strategy in the Bahamas this can lead to the reduction of the percentage of income on food, because Bahamians will be producing their own food whether subsistence or on a commercial scale. Thirdly, stability which refers to access to food always and the impacts of markets and prices, utilization, commonly understood as the way the body makes the most of various nutrients in food. The Bahamas if cut off from the world can only sustain food resources for two weeks which puts the Bahamas at a disadvantage. The Bahamas as it stands does not have the minimal amount of food resources to be considered secured with food supply for Bahamians. This had lead to the
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