Enticing Caribbean Sweet Potato Recipes

Preparing nutritious meals from locally grown root crops, that has a broad appeal to the young and old, can become a challenge for many busy householders. Recently, the Caribbean Agricultural Research Development Institute with support from the Caribbean Development Bank commissioned the preparation of a recipe book that focused on the use of sweet potato in a range of relatively easy to prepare meals.

This recipe book contains 20 exciting savoury and sweet preparations, including favourites such as:

• Biscuits
• Bread
• Breakfast Bowl
• Brownies
• Chicken Poppers
• Dasheen Bush Frittas
• Ducana
• Dumplings
• Fudge
• Gnocchi
• Hash
• Ice Cream
• Oatmeal
• Pancakes
• Peanut Butter Cookies
• Pita Pockets
• Pound Cake
• Smoothie
• Sweet Potato Slice
• Tortillas

For inquiries contact: The Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute.

Food Security...old talk again?

Apparently, CARICOM through its Council for Trade & Economic Development (COTED) approved a Regional Food & Nutrition Security Policy in October 2010. This little known policy has the following four objectives:

  1. Food Availability - Promote the sustainable production, processing, preparation, commercialization and consumption of safe, affordable, nutritious, high quality Caribbean food commodities/products.
 2. Food Access - Ensure regular access of Caribbean households, especially the poor and vulnerable, to sufficient quantities of safe, affordable, quality food at all times, particularly in response to diverse socioeconomic and natural shocks.
 3. Food Utilization/Nutritional Adequacy - Improve the nutritional status of the Caribbean population, particularly with respect to NCDs including diabetes, hypertension, overweight and obesity.
 4. Stability of Food Supply - Improve the resilience of the region’s national communities and households to natural and socio-economic crises.

The full policy document is available at this link.

The key question is...how do we move from talk to serious, consistent action?