SUNDAY 17 DECEMBER, 2017 –
UWI TODAY 100
TH
ISSUE
19
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Every Wednesday,
when the daily
What’s On
goes out by
internal email to staff and students, the notice of the Farm
Sale gets the most hits (at least it seems so).
Held by the Faculty of Food and Agriculture every
Thursday morning at the Frank Stockdale building, this
is a sale of produce grown by the Faculty from the farm at
Orange Grove and the rooftop greenhouse at St. Augustine.
While the quantity is not huge, the quality is superb.
Everything is grown using the latest techniques, and some
innovative ones, designed by staff and students, says Dean
Wayne Ganpat.
Selling the produce internally helps the university
community to appreciate the high quality of the fruits,
vegetables and herbs, but also encourages people to buy
local.
OnThursday, November 30 however, something more
than the Farm Sale was drawing a crowd. The Faculty was
hosting its first Research Day in years, so while produce was
being sold outside the Sir Frank Stockdale building, inside,
posters were on display and academic presentations were
being made on the work of the FFA over the past few years.
Upstairs, outside theNational Herbarium, DeanGanpat
was welcoming guests and launching the ResearchDigest – a
compilation of work from the FFA – classified under seven
categories: Food Production; Food Security; Nutrition, Food
Safety and Consumer Science; Climate Change; Extension
and Rural Development; Geography and the Environment;
and Faculty Collaborative Research Projects’ Summaries.
Some of the research done included the use of bamboo
instead of steel for greenhouse construction. “It showed
weight for weight, the load bearing strength of bamboo to
be six times that of steel, while its cost is just 20 percent that
of steel with labour for harvesting included.” Six times! Who
would have thought it?
Researchers also studied the prevalence of food
insecurity and its determinants, using a sample of low-
income participants from north-east Trinidad. They
classified 56 % of the households to be food secure. Of the
food-insecure households, 11% experienced “moderate
food insecurity with hunger and 5% experienced severe
food insecurity with hunger.”
The researchers also found that the age of the
respondent, marital status, ethnicity, education and
individual income level were “significantly” associated with
food security status.
“Lower risk of household food insecurity was associated
with higher age, East Indian descent and higher individual
income. Higher likelihood was associated with single or
divorcedmarital status. Mild food insecurity was associated
On the rooftop of the Faculty of Food and Agriculture are not only
the most spectacular views in every direction, but a “food factory”
where staff and students are growing a range of produce and devising
aquaponics systems for commercial and home use.
PHOTO: ATIBA CUDJOE
A Secret Garden
B Y V A N E I S A B A K S H
with being divorced, or East Indian descent and currently
squatting, while higher total household income reduced
this risk.”
Food security is one of the abiding goals of the FFA.
Dean Ganpat tirelessly preaches this mantra, and this
morning he was joined by Deputy Principal, Professor
Indar Ramnarine; PVC for Graduate Studies, Professor Dale
Webber; and Chair of the Coco Research Centre, Winston
Rudder when they spoke at the ceremony.
Dean Ganpat mentioned the high food import bill,
which has been estimated at TT$4.5 billion, and Prof
Webber spoke about lifestyle diseases as he talked about
the research clusters that have been formed to maximize
resources. The abstracts in the Research Digest provide a
fascinating look at what the Faculty has been doing, but they
give a better understanding of where we stand, because the
research is very diverse.
This sentence from one abstract alone tells volumes.
“Ultra-processed foods are major sources of
nourishment in this population.”
In a land full of fruit and vegetables, what are we eating?
A separate study looked at our foods and the nutritional
implications after visiting 30% of registered supermarkets
and groceries over a two-month period. The food was
classified as minimally/unprocessed, processed and ultra-
processed.
Here’s what the abstract says of the 4062 food items that
were recorded and analysed.
“The levels of food processing were as follows:
minimally processed/unprocessed (14.3%), processed
(2.6%) and ultra-processed (83.1%).”
That is an astonishing amount of ultra-processed foods,
isn’t it?
There is a lot of information contained in this digest
and it is something that should be made available to policy
makers, not only in the agricultural sector, but in trade,
finance, economics, health, tourism, every facet of our lives.
Everyone knows the region needs to work harder
towards achieving food security. The food import bill is
alarming. We’ve developed tastes for many faraway flavours
and have turned away from the homegrown. Agriculture has
been consistently treated as a has-been by the State, even
while it pays lip-service to the concepts of diversification
and sustainable development.
The Faculty of Food and Agriculture seems ready
to lead the charge towards food security and economic
diversification.
Here is a list of some of what the FFA produces – why not
plan your holiday menu around locally grown produce?
Banana peppers
Bell pepper
Paprika Peppers
Sweet Peppers
Cassava
Sweet Potato
Plantains
Zucchini
Chef Ife Craig,
is owner and chef of Ginger & Spice
Gourmet Ltd which caters for small, medium and
large events such as weddings, corporate functions and
other special events. For more information about the
company and the Chef, visit their website at
gingerandspicett.com/ or their Facebook page: https://
These products were createdwith one of her business
partners and fellow Bishop Anstey High School alumni
Jamillah David. Here is one of their Eggless Ponche De
Crème recipes that you can try at home.
EGGLESS
CHOCOLATE
PONCHE DE CRÈME
Ingredients
4 tbsp grated Trinidad Chocolate
1/2 lb yellow pumpkin
2 tins condensed milk *
2 cups soy milk (500ml)
1 1/2 cups puncheon rum+
3 tbsp aromatic bitters
2 tsp grated nutmeg
Method
Wash, peel, cut and boil pumpkin. Strain off extra water
and purée and put into a mixing bowl.
Add the grated chocolate to the soy milk and bring to
a boil. Allow to sit for 20 minutes then blend and strain.
Add bitters, essence, nutmeg, evaporated milk and
condensed* milk. Add rum+ and stir well.
Remember to chill and enjoy responsibly with a friend
or two.
Making vegan condensed non-dairy milk involves
adding sugar to a vegan non-dairy milk such as soy,
rice, almond or coconut and reducing it to about half its
original volume.
This season, be creative and replace Puncheon with
Scotch, Brandy/Cognac or Whisky.
Melongene
Kale
Swiss Chard
Pak Choi
Tomatoes
Herbs
Cucumber
Green Figs
FFA Dean Wayne Ganpat, presented a copy of the Research Digest to
guests, including the Deputy Principal, Professor Indar Ramnarine.
PHOTO: TERRY SAMPSON
