A small group of students from Williams College traveled to the island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas with Williams College professor Sarah Gardner during Winter Study Term of 2015. While escaping the harsh Williamstown winter, we met so many nice people willing to participate in our learning experience allowing us to report back to Williams College and to the community at large, about our findings on the instability, but also potential that agriculture has on the island of Eleuthera.
We discovered that Eleuthera has all of the elements needed to develop a strong local food system that increases the island’s food self-sufficiency, stimulates the local economy, and provides farers with a better income. Additionally, it would provide more affordable fresh produce to make healthy eating easier than it is now. Our goal was to research some potential ways to achieve this.
Working in concert with One Eleuthera, a foundation centered on improving the health and well-being of the people of Eleuthera, we conducted interviews with farmers, restaurant owners, market managers and fishermen to expand the production and consumption of local, organic foods on Eleuthera thereby reducing the dependence on imported foods
These efforts as well as our final observations and suggestions are explained in a final report, a powerpoint, and a short video depicting what we learned. Each member of the Williams team also contributed to a blog throughout our time on the island, which can be found here.
By Caroline Beckmann, ’17
Megamenu Social