Dear Editor,
One of the most touted objectives, globally, is Food Security. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals articulates it most succinctly as “Zero Hunger”. In keeping with that goal, CARICOM has targeted 2030 as the timeline for the achievement of Food Security. However, in respect to Guyana, the Nature Food journal published the results of a 2025 study that identified Guyana as the only country out of 186 surveyed that is fully self-sufficient in all seven major food groups, meaning it can feed its entire population without relying on food imports.
At the national level self-sufficient is a step higher that food security. Food Security speaks to the capacity to acquire sufficient food. Self-sufficient speaks to a sufficiency of food, which is home grown. Guyana therefore seems to be not only food secure, but not reliant on foreign supplies for its food security/self-sufficiency.
Experts have contended that the capacity to be food secure requires the following steps: growing your own food, embracing the culture of community gardens, buying local, sustainable eating, and to understanding and being guided by the knowledge of what food security really means (availability, access, utilisation and stability, which is consistency over time across the first three factors).
The aforementioned, but for the element on self-sufficiency, surmises an article carried in a recent edition of Caribbean Airlines` Caribbean Beat.
Reading that article took my memory back to the policies and lived experience of the Burnham regime, which were clearly aligned with what`s now being pronounced as Food Security, and indeed largely pursued, if not absolutely achieved, at that time.
Guyana therefore owes a debt of gratitude to the Burnham regime for its foresight and leadership, which built the foundation for what is now being declared, but not necessarily acknowledged, since politicking and revisionism trumps honesty and gratitude.
The policy of self-sufficiency is but one of many pillars that Guyana could be built on, which if acknowledged and overtly pursued can engender the oneness of our peoples, nation and destiny.