By Nate Olive, M.A. VISFI Program Director, University of Georgia Research Assistant

Did you know that an estimated 99.5% of the food bought and served on St. Croix is imported from outside the USVI? This figure is astounding since the island has long been known as the "Breadbasket of the Caribbean." Tragically, many factors during recent generations have put farmers on a virtual endangered species list. We at the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute (VISFI) believe that St. Croix deserves a stable, sustainable, fresh, and delicious food supply. If you agree, then here is some good news. St. Croix is reinventing the Breadbasket.

The past has taught that it takes an entire community effort to keep farms alive. Long before the sugar cane era, native Tainos grew mass amounts of food for hundreds of years in village planting mounds they called conucos2. Later, community gardens existed in estates where, after a day's labor in the cane fields, many slaves continued their pre-colonial African heritage by growing their own food3. Following generations mentored with growing skills created a viable agricultural industry that fed not only St. Croix but also other nearby islands. Then a downturn occurred when farmers had to compete with distant mega-farms and cheaper shipping. Despite the loss of food quality, the alien food was cheaper and easier. Local markets closed. Farmers dropped like mangoes. Getting food went from the farm stand to the checkout line. However, in this new era of transportation and technology, pioneering farming and marketing practices are helping revive St. Croix's locally grown food heritage. But to truly succeed, it will take new ways of thinking about food from both farmers and consumers.