Please allow me the opportunity to clarify our position as it relates to your (The Tribune’s) July 27th article “Government hindering farming”.
We have received several calls expressing support but unfortunately none from the relevant Departments that we would have hoped. Possibly there is no interest in repairing the problems that exist within the system of farmer/government relationship, but we hope this is not the case.
Goodfellow Farms currently employs six Haitians and eight Bahamians. The combined salary and benefits for the Bahamians employed is close to a quarter of a million dollars. The field labour is all done by Haitians but all managed by Bahamians – Mr. Roger Rolle, C. Eneas and Ms. McKay; a really super team.
The balance of the Bahamians are employed in the packaging/order desk/food production and bottling/canning. These are all good jobs; clean jobs, jobs that are well paid middle and upper level. My problem is that my permit applications are taking a year and then being turned down. First of all that is too long and secondly if my applications and renewals are rejected then there will be no Haitian labour and therefore no field production, therefore no need to employ this great team of Bahamians.
Seems simple but I have been to every Ministry and relevant department with no successful results. We are not here to embarrass the Government or point fingers but why have a National Agricultural Policy that does not work?
Our Mission Statement: To improve the quality of produce, food and life in The Bahamas.
There is no need for me to detail the facts about Bahamians not wanting to field labour, and it’s understandable that we all want our children to be better off than we are and not worse off. We believe Bahamians should be given the best positions for the best wages and we do exactly that at the Farm. Here is the deal: for every permit we receive we will employ another Bahamian on our team.
Our job is to be a healthy alternative food source, if the rules that we work under keep changing then running a farm becomes impossible.
Our farm is a model of the marriage between agriculture and tourism.
Our internship programme with the College has not been a success but it will be as the nature of the programme and agriculture find a common ground.
Thanks you for the opportunity to express my two cents worth.
By:
Karin and Ian Goodfellow
Roger Rolle
Cleveland Eneas
Yolanda McKay
Anthony Claridge
Cally Papageorge
Jennifer Wilson
Marva Johnson
Mauren Rolle
Plus six student workers and Field production team.
