From CARICOM

GEORGE TOWN Cayman Islands, Demerara Waves – Caribbean health and education experts have lamented the impact of free trade on the consumption of certain foods and beverages that are badly affecting the health of the region’s children.

Senior Medical Officer of Grenada’s Ministry of Health, Dr. Francis Martin said the reality is that many Caribbean schools are cash-strapped and so they turn to sponsors to support sporting competitions. Those sponsors, he said, then provide unhealthy sugar-based drinks to players.

“It’s an issue of finance because countries, because of all these trade deals that are being signed, these countries cannot say, they cannot ban certain things and the truth is those persons already know the dangerous health benefits to these foods but precedent is set all around,” he told a panel discussion on Governance and Public Policy for Food and Nutrition Security Sustainable School Feeding Programmes.

The discussion was one of several such for a that is part of the Caribbean Week of Agriculture being held in the Cayman Islands from October 24 to 29, 2016. Sponsored by the Netherlands-based Centre for Technical Cooperation and Rural Agriculture (CTA), the event among other things aims to promote the sustainable production and consumption of healthy foods by the Caribbean for the Caribbean. These include roots and tubers and fruits and vegetables that experts say help to reduce the development of non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension and heart ailments that in turn take a heavy toll on countries’ national budgets.

Martin noted that people are more likely to demonstrate if there is a shortage of pharmaceutical supplies are unfulfilled but fail to do so against the large quantities of imported fast foods.

“We don’t so we ourselves are the hypocrites. We got to stand up and say ‘no’,” he said.

IMAGE: Senior Medical Officer of Grenada’s Ministry of Health, Dr Francis Martin (left) and Saint Lucian parliamentarian, Moses Jn, Baptiste. (Photo via Demerara Waves)

For more on this story go to: http://today.caricom.org/2016/10/26/free-trade-taking-toll-on-health-of-caribbean-school-children/