Summary of Research
Declining food production (not consumption) in the Caribbean continues to be a major concern of regional governments because of its implications for continued high food import bills, as well as reduced employment and idle capacity in agriculture.
In addition, market pressures are causing significant specialization among small farmers so that many are now engaged exclusively in the production of cash crops for export. Traditionally, small farms have been the main production units for domestic food production in the region and the present emphasis on specialization is undermining both domestic food production as well as biodiversity on small farms.
My research is aimed at shedding light on the nature of the processes that are contributing to agricultural change in the Caribbean and the consequent food production decline and the loss of biodiversity on small farms.
Political ecology provides the theoretical framework for this research. Political ecology examines patterns of resource use at the local level from the point of view of environmental challenges that face people, social and cultural factors that shape human responses to the environment, and the workings of political-economic forces at local, regional and global scales. Political ecology emphasizes the need to understand these processes in their historical context because the complex interactions between environment and society are always embedded in history and locally specific ecologies.