PGR News from the Pacific

Posted 1:08 PM by Luigi

A market to promote local foods

This message was sent by Moses Pretrick to the Island Food Community of Pohnpei mailing list. It might be relevant to other Pacific Islands as well.

I follow this forum and wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Lois and all of you for all your excellent ideas of promoting local foods for good health, food security, culture, business, private sector development etc...

Another possible idea to further promote local food production and consumption is to physically expand our local food market facilities to provide more space for let's say 50 more farmers who are willing and able to sell their harvests. This sort of setting could probably help stimulate more production of local crops, including fruits and vegetables, and more competition with imported foods. We walk into a super market this week the shelves are full of imported vegetables and fruits; and after a week or so the shelves are completely empty. It is therefore clear that we need to sustain our local supply of fruits, vegetables and root crops to meet local and export demand for these healthy foods.

Since our campaign to grow and eat more local food consumption has been gaining wider recognition for health, cultural, economic and other import reasons, government could probably spear-head a small pilot project to see if such idea would in fact work well here in Pohnpei. It seemed to work pretty well in some South Pacific island countries that consumed more local foods than we are.

Moses Pretrick



	A blog maintained by Tevita Kete, PGR Officer Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Suva, Fiji Islands
This weblog documents the activities of Pacific Agricultural Genetic Resources Network (PAPGREN), along with other information on plant genetic resources (PGR) in the Pacific. The myriad varieties found within cultivated plants are fundamental to the present and future productivity of agriculture. PAPGREN, which is coordinated by the Land Resources Division of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), helps Pacific countries and territories to conserve their crop genetic diversity sustainably, with technical assistance from the Bioversity International (BI) and support from NZAID and ACIAR. SPC also hosts the Centre of Pacific Crops and Trees (CEPaCT). The CEPaCT maintains regional in vitro collections of crops important to the Pacific and carries out research on tissue culture technology. The CEPaCT Adviser is Dr Mary Taylor (MaryT@spc.int), the CEPaCT Curator is Ms Valerie Tuia (ValerieT@spc.int). 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DIVA-GIS	Sunday, February 05, 2006 Posted 1:08 PM by Luigi A market to promote local foods This message was sent by Moses Pretrick to the Island Food Community of Pohnpei mailing list. It might be relevant to other Pacific Islands as well. I follow this forum and wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Lois and all of you for all your excellent ideas of promoting local foods for good health, food security, culture, business, private sector development etc... Another possible idea to further promote local food production and consumption is to physically expand our local food market facilities to provide more space for let's say 50 more farmers who are willing and able to sell their harvests. This sort of setting could probably help stimulate more production of local crops, including fruits and vegetables, and more competition with imported foods. We walk into a super market this week the shelves are full of imported vegetables and fruits; and after a week or so the shelves are completely empty. It is therefore clear that we need to sustain our local supply of fruits, vegetables and root crops to meet local and export demand for these healthy foods. Since our campaign to grow and eat more local food consumption has been gaining wider recognition for health, cultural, economic and other import reasons, government could probably spear-head a small pilot project to see if such idea would in fact work well here in Pohnpei. It seemed to work pretty well in some South Pacific island countries that consumed more local foods than we are. Moses Pretrick * Comments: Post a Comment	Archive October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 January 2010 RSS Feed Alternative feed Contact Tevita Something new: Agrobiodiversity Weblog: For discussions of conservation and sustainable use of the genetic resources of crops, livestock and their wild relatives. 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