Food Security in the Caribbean: Historical Perspectives, Current Challenges, and Sustainable Solutions

Food security is a pressing concern in the Caribbean. Caribbean countries produce and export crops including sugar, bananas, and coffee, but this archipelago of states relies heavily on imported food when it comes to nourishing the Caribbean population. As much as 80% of the food consumed is imported. This is because the region does not have a robust domestic food crop or livestock sector. Much of the imported food is processed: high in sugar, fat, and salt. As a result, the region now has one of the highest rates of obesity in the Americas. And there are, as a consequence, heightened incidences of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. This negatively impacts the resources and budgets of health facilities in the Caribbean, which in turn hurts the developmental prospects of these Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

Food Security in the Caribbean breaks down the concept of food security in all of its dimensions and critically analyzes the state of food security within four specific pillars: availability, access, utilization, and stability. Offering insights into key trends in food production, consumption, and access, the book combines data from the CARICOM Secretariat, Ministries of Agriculture, and other relevant institutions. Chapters highlight the historical and structural conditioning of the Caribbean agriculture sector as an exporter of select tropical commodities and overreliance on imports for domestic food consumption.

Chapters critically examine the fitness of purpose of regional and national institutional frameworks, investment in infrastructure, land reform, and the development of appropriate agricultural research, technology, and extension systems. There is an examination of the role of neoliberal policies and the directives of international funding institutions. The authors also address important and emerging challenges posed by COVID-19 and supply chain issues resulting from international conflicts, such as the one in Ukraine.

This is an invaluable resource for economic researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and students interested in addressing the complex challenges of food security in the Caribbean region and beyond.

Donovan Stanberry is Campus Registrar of the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica. In 2004, he was appointed Jamaica’s Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Land and Environment. In April 2006, he became Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. In 2016 and until 2019, Stanberry served as Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Stanberry has represented the Government of Jamaica at many international forums in the areas of water policy and management, environment, agriculture, MSME development, industry, and commerce. He has played a major and sometimes pioneering role in the formulation of policies and legislation in the subject areas under his various ministries’ portfolio. In recognition of his outstanding public service, Stanberry, also a Justice of the Peace, was conferred with the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) in 2018, by the Government of Jamaica. He is author of How Trade Liberalization Affects a Sugar-Dependent Community in Jamaica (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022).

Lystra Fletcher-Paul is a former lecturer in Biometrics at the University of the West Indies in St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago. She has more than thirty years of experience working in the agricultural sector in Latin America and the Caribbean. She was Professional Officer in the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) in Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica. She has also been employed as Biometrician at the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), St Lucia. In 1995, she joined the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) where she held several positions, including Technical Officer in the Land and Water Development Division in their Headquarters in Rome, Integrated Natural Resources Management Officer/ Regional Land and Water Officer in the Sub-Regional Office in Barbados; FAO Representative in Guyana from 2009 to 2013; and for Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname in 2015. In 2017 she was appointed as the Sub-Regional Coordinator for the Caribbean where she served in Barbados until her retirement in 2018. She was presented with the Distinguished Woman in Trade Award for 2024 by the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services, of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, in recognition of her outstanding service to the advancement of agriculture and food security policy and research in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).