In his contribution to the debate on the Food Security and Sustainability Bill introduced in the House of Assembly yesterday, Penn said USDA certified food could help with the ease of exportation and trade of agricultural products from the territory.

“I am happy the bill has aspects to it that speaks to certification. We need to look at the possibility of USDA certified products in the BVI. It gives us the opportunity to export on a larger scale into the USVI and other regions that could support and grow these industries,” Penn said.

The Opposition Leader said while it is important to think of small scale development to support and sustain the people of the territory, it is also pertinent that the government looks for opportunities in the foreign market.

“We have to start thinking beyond BVI and the matter of developing for just our local population which is important. We need to get to the point where we don’t need to import much of the supplies we need as a territory, but we need to look at our businesses to be global businesses. Businesses that look beyond the shores of the Virgin Islands in terms of developing these critical components and economic development for our country,” Penn added.

Enforcing Legislation

The Leader of the Opposition said while enacting legislation is a good thing, there needs to be more action afterwards to ensure it is properly enforced to benefit the people of the Virgin Islands.

“We do things that are in the best interest of our people in these critical industries and the issue of food security is more than just a buzzword but more of an action. Legislations are good, we have tonnes of it on our books, but we have to ensure that once we pass these legislations, they are enforced and put to action,” Penn said.

Partnership For Development

In his contribution, Penn also noted the Act seeks to create a regulatory body for the Agricultural Department. He added that the government must look at ways where the regulatory body could create and generate revenues for itself.

“The authority could be [self]-sustaining; where they could share technical resources from their partners, where they could form relationships with already established regulatory authorities where we don’t necessarily have to outfit the entire suite of these areas on the ground … [and] where we have relationships so we can focus on the main objectives which are planting food, growing a poultry business or livestock business and focus on the actual production of food in the territory,” Penn stated.

He noted that once the bill reaches the committee stage of the House, the government could look to find and develop a level of synergy with other countries and territories in the region that already have an established agricultural industry. He added that these countries already have structures for decades that the Virgin Islands is trying to replicate and partnership with them could help to develop the territory.