Time to show it's your turn.

You're numb to the street and you're flowing in number three.

You done three to somebody.

The friends you know you won't.

Hi.

Good day and welcome to The Washington Report.

I'm Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, and I serve as the Virgin Islands delegate to the US House of Representatives.

The Washington report was created to inform Virgin Islanders on current federal issues that directly affect our community.

I'm honored to have as my guest today Jay Axum of the University of the District of Columbia and Dr. Alison Minor of George Mason University.

Mr. Axum is the director of the Center for Urban Agriculture and Gardening Education, where he leads a team of researchers at the Firebird Research Farm in Beltsville, Maryland, and oversees several community education programs, including the DC Master Gardening Program, among many others.

He worked for the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Sciences Institute for 20 years, taught middle school science.

That's the hard work and has worked as a successful farmer and sustainable farming consultant.

My other guest is Dr. Alison Minor, who is a licensed dietitian and educator.

Dr. Minor is an assistant professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

She also provides medical nutrition therapy at the Department of Homeland Security, specifically the Transportation Security Administration's health unit.

Both Dr. Minor and Mr. Axum joined me and my team earlier this year for a roundtable discussion on agriculture and food security in the Virgin Islands at the University of the Virgin Islands and attended the annual Bird Bordo Farmers, Agricultural and Vegan Food Fair on Saint Thomas.

Thank you both so much for joining me and welcome to the Washington Report.

Thank you.

We're so happy to be here.

I'm really excited to have you guys here, particularly after our meeting in Saint Thomas.

You're getting to see the farmers, talk to the university, talk to people who are really entrenched in this back home in the valley.

And so here we are now and see where you've had some time to pull away and have some thoughts about it.

And now I get to have all of the Virgin Islands here.

What you learned and give us some of your insights.

Mr. Axum, can you explain what urban agriculture is and how it impacts food security and how we hear the word urban and we don't think of the Virgin Islands, how it could be applied to a place like the Virgin Islands?

Well, what a great question.

So urban agriculture is not something that's new.

A lot of people here, urban and agriculture together, they kind of think, well, it can never really work out.

But urban agriculture has been around for thousands of years.

So what?

What do you mean by that?

The first true sustainable agriculture starts in the Nile Valley, Egypt, and it starts out people just growing, living in cities and they're growing food near where they where they live it.

And so that really kind of leads to what we have today.

But we just need more of it.

We just need a lot more of it to really and it's not going to really solve all the problems in urban areas.

We're still going to need that influx of some farm income, some food coming from rural areas.

But urban agriculture can assist in really addressing food and nutritional security.

So here in the Virgin Islands, that would be like in our towns on South Korean, Christian said and Frederick said, or in neighborhoods or in Charlotte, Mali, on Main Street or near schools, right in your towns and your schools or your rooftops.

Yeah.

Everybody's backyard.

Everybody's home.

Should be a food factory if it can be.

Great.

Great.

So what sustainable farming practices do you find most effective in those kinds of settings, and how can they be implemented in the Virgin Islands to enhance food security?

Well, believe it or not, I mean, there are some great systems.

And one of the systems that we really teach at the university, I teach and I have a co teacher that teaches this.

We teach a biota of agriculture with a certain type of agriculture with that which does not use a lot of machinery.

So a lot of handheld tools.

And this agriculture, this biotech, it creates almost 2 to 6 times more food than conventional mechanized farming.

So there are a lot of things that you can do, and it doesn't really cost a lot, but you just have to implement them.

And so they're very successful.

It's been proven and it produced a lot of I mean, some tips for my backyard and Christians that I live in the town.

What would I, what would that look like in your backyard?

I would suggest you do some rays bed gardening.

You know, just get them to bite boards, make a square four by eight or three by eight.

Fill it with soil.

You're off to the races.

And that will that will sustain.

That will at least provide my salads and for the house.

And, you know, like I said, when you scale that up and, you know, some people do it on maybe 50 square feet, if you get up to where you can do it on 200 square feet, you can save almost 6 to $700 a year.

Wow.

And your food bill.

Wow.

Well, Dr.

Miner, given your understanding of urban gardening, how do you see the integration of gardening and nutrition education as a strategy to combat food insecurity and promote health in urban areas?

So let me start out by saying that I know there's a economic issue all over the United States, and particularly in the United States, Virgin Islands.

And as people have less money to spend on food, they will spend more of those dollars on what we call ultra processed foods.

These are foods where just certain aspects of a food might be used, and then they add sugar and salt and lots of different additives and colors.

And what you end up is a food that's not really nutritious.

It's very palatable.

So it increases appetite.

And so we have this terrible obesity problem that's happening all over the U.S. and the U.S. Virgin Islands is No, it's no exception.

Right.

Urban farming can provide some food.

I don't want to overstate that.

We can get rid of food insecurity with a someone having a backyard farm or urban farm.

But it will add to the nutritious food that people can have.

And there's lots of research that when people farm and they grow their own food, they will eat more of their food.

So what we want to do is have people eat less ultra processed foods and more food that they're growing, and it will lead to better health.

It's already happening with your farm to school program in the schools.

And I know the USDA is very active in providing plants and things like that, but more needs to happen.

I do want to say, just as an aside, she just told you, just get a you know, a plot, put some soil, let it grow.

But I did that one summer.

He gave me some advice about what to use for the soil.

And I was kind of comparing it with two other people that I knew were gardening.

The advice he gave me, my plants were fantastic, but the other two that did not have the advice of an agronomist, their garden was not that good.

So you really do need an expert.

It's not just as simple as adding the soil.

But he can't give you advice right here, at least to get you started.

Listen, I have I'm actually very good.

And I do both in our home here in Washington, D.C., and our home on Saint Thomas and Croix.

I grow food.

That's awesome.

And because you're growing food and you're involved in it, you better eat my food.

You better eat what I produce.

And people love it.

Yeah, yeah.

And know I do everything shockingly up here.

I do.

Of course.

You know, collard greens, kale, arugula, okra, tomatoes, and pretty much the same what I always worry about, particularly back home on sequoias because you have multiple seasons, is the exhaustion of the soil in my backyard.

So trying to do cover over crops and trying to let it rest a little bit.

See how am I good, right?

Yeah, I'm a little impressed, I mean, in all of that.

But yeah, I mean, you know, I always advise people do a soul test because it's very difficult to manage what you can't measure.

And that gives you a snapshot of what is in the soil and what plant available nutrients are.

There can be a lot of nutrients in the soil, but all of them are plant available.

They're also could be heavy metals in the soil, which it can be very dangerous for people that are growing food.

So getting that soil tested, I think it's a good it's a good step.

It's not expensive to do as you can almost do it yourself.

There are some kits that you can buy.

I know we also are really interested in having our young people, like in elementary school and middle schools, having space in their schools for them to grow food as well to supplement what's happening in the school cafeteria.

Right.

100%.

And you know, as adults, we're a little stuck in our ways.

You know, it's even though I give advice to adults, it's so much better to start with a young person and have them grow food and understand the difference in the taste and the nutritional value and the social aspect and the the value they get from socializing with other people in a garden because it's going to promote a lifelong love and promotion of that.

So absolutely, getting this in the schools is should be the number one priority of of a society like the U.S. Virgin Islands.

So we've been talking to individuals, you know, a lot of what you've been saying is addressed to people who are living in these areas and the towns and how important it is for them.

But what policy recommendations would you propose or offer to local governments like the Virgin Islands, to support the advancement of this agriculture and improve nutrition, nutritional outcomes among residents?

So and he might have some.

Yeah.

I mean, one thing I say, you know, in Washington, D.C., in 2014, they passed something called the Food and Farming Bill.

And basically what it did is, you know, sometimes you see these vacant lots.

Somebody's always usually owns these vacant lots.

But people who were to farm or gardening can get in touch with these folks who had these vacant lots.

And the people who are the land owners get a tax break for leasing their land.

To that way, you increase more farmers, you get more farmers.

So we really need to grow this farm.

Definitely have some of those.

So if you got that in, yeah, if you got that just getting that together, passing some legislation will allow people to lease their farmland and hopefully reduce their taxes.

Why are they doing it right?

So, you know, the U.S. Virgin Islands, because when I visited, I was like, I could live here.

But the cost is just incredible.

I mean, it's beautiful, right?

And when developers are developing, as you know, they're trying to have maximum density in the area.

And very often that leaves urban farming because it needs a lot of land out of the picture.

I think and I'm not an expert in in policy this area, but what I will say is it's zoning.

The zoning has to the legislature has to change the zoning so that you can promote agriculture.

A lot of zoning.

And I don't know what the zoning is like in the US Virgin Islands is is anti urban farming because we want developers to develop it.

It makes more money.

But what you can do is you can, like Chase said, establish areas with think where nothing's happening and let people farm.

You can also incentivize developers to have a certain portion of their land be devoted to urban farming.

They can put farms on their roof, they can put farms inside, they can do vertical farms.

There's so many things that you can do and there's a lot of resources out to do that.

But it does take the government, right, the legislators, to say, no, this is what we want, and to pass a law so that we get those zoning so that people can can farm.

Well, that's really, I think, so relevant right now as the Virgin Islands has really just been going a land and water use plan, which would really kind of map out what areas, you know, how the density and non density commercial residential, farmland, agriculture, rural as well as what are what we want as ourselves to look like, what do we want to use our land for?

So that's an excellent idea and I love the idea of utilizing because we have a particularly in the towns families that may own a small plot.

Right.

And it's not one that they're going to necessarily develop right now.

But in the interim, the next five years or so, the community could use that space for farming that would that's really a fantastic idea.

And, you know, there are so many benefits to farming that go beyond the food security.

You know, during World War One and two, we had something called victory gardens.

I guess most people are familiar with that.

It was just a way to get Americans to grow food because there were food shortages.

But by 1944, 40% of the fruit and vegetables that people eat were coming from these urban gardens.

More people are living in urban areas.

I think 80 There's estimates that 80% of the population by 2050 will be living in an urban area.

So it is super important that we do this.

Now.

What are some of the benefits?

One is we've got this climate change problem.

You know yourself, we've got massive hurricanes that are destroying things.

Urban gardens can sequester carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, urban gardening uses less water.

Right.

That's a huge problem.

Our aquifers are being decimated right now.

Urban gardening, the food is more nutritious because when you have to transport food, 5% of your food coming in imports, the nutritional value is much lower.

So that's for me as a dietitian.

And I think the other issue is the food is not as fresh.

I think if when people taste and you know yourself, when you taste food from your own garden, it's amazing, is it not?

It's us.

Although the I'm sure the US Virgin Islands has some great farms and you can we do to do and you know, just letting people to know know to support those local farms is really important is very, very important and incentivizing people.

So one of the things I really find out, one of my specialties is, you know, crop nutrient density and nutrient management of farm.

So as growers, sometimes we don't pick out the most nutritious varieties that they are and there are a lot of vegetables.

For example, there's a tomato called caramel rich, which is very high in beta carotene than most other tomatoes.

And there are a lot of crops like that.

But if you don't know to ask where these crops are, know where to find these crops.

There's a whole list of nutrient dense vegetables which you will probably never see in the grocery store, unfortunately.

Well, one of the things maybe we can do as a follow up is you give us a listing of some of those and I'll be happy to put them on our social media on the website so that when people are looking about going for their own doing that, that they can they can look into those things not only nutrient dense crops but climate smart crops too.

I have a whole list of research crops that I use at the farm which grow very well into high heat indices in temperatures and do well during this time.

So what were some of the interesting things that you might have seen when you were at our our Bordeaux farmers, the agricultural fair?

I saw some very passionate people, very passionate about what they do.

And so I was just blown away, you know, would be I mean, you see that somewhere in some of the farmer's markets in this area.

But I mean, you had just some very passionate people just trying to be farmers the best they could under some kind of, you know, conditions.

So, yeah, so that was the main thing.

And then you saw and a lot of them were young people too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's cited by young people.

So that means that there is some momentum to really get AG and things like that.

I mean this whole thing about STEM education, I've always thought that they needed a in STEM education to have a for agriculture in there because agriculture is the mother of all sciences.

So to not have agriculture in STEM education is a bad, bad, bad move.

What did you think?

I think other people were very knowledgeable, that the food was delicious and the places that we went were tremendous.

I didn't get a chance, I don't think.

Well, at the time about the farmer's market that we went to, they were just lovely.

The people were just lovely and so, so nice.

The music was was great.

The products that they were selling were fantastic.

A lot of value added products, lots of value.

They had plans.

There were all kinds of things.

So I think people are I don't want to say desperate.

What I want to say is they're just enthusiastic to get their products out there and to have people come to purchase them.

They just need a boost.

And I'm and I'm assuming that that's that's really coming from from the from the local governments and the local government.

But I know that there are for John's Economic development authority really is supporting value added food processing, helping them develop a plant where different farmers can work collaboratively, collectively together to do that, as well as branding and marketing, providing some support as well in those areas.

You know, I do want to add that there's a big problem with cardiovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes.

It's all over the United States.

The US Virgin Islands is no exception.

When you grow plants, they reduce hypertension, they reduce blood sugar, they reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, they can reduce obesity.

It's really important from a public health perspective to get this going because you can save money in that area.

You might be spending some money on the front end, but on the back end you can save a lot of money and you can save a lot of heartache among people that are suffering from these diseases.

So I'm a big proponent of urban farming.

Well, I wanted to ask a little fun question before we leave.

What what is something that you do to decompress?

We talk about food and nutrition.

And I know you as a nutritionist, a dietitian, you understand that stress also provides a lot of a lot of issues in terms of health.

What do you do?

What do you each do?

What's your decompression?

Favorite thing to do?

I mean, Well, besides exercise, I mean, my my go to for inspiration as far as what I want to get from agriculture and research thing that I go to a lot of my people.

I listen to jazz musicians, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, how innovative they were in doing what they've they've done.

And I just want to say, well, how innovative can I be at the farm as far as finding new ways to grow things all right now.

So, I mean, yeah, I'm not a musician at all.

Is appreciation.

Yeah.

So exercise for me, it's walking, it's doing weight lifting.

I just am into exercise and it's a great way to reduce stress and to reduce all those chronic conditions that people talk about.

I also love animals.

I saw Balto.

he's very good.

They're awesome.

So when I saw that today is his birthday, I saw that out to Balto for I love animals.

I think animals are great people.

They show that animals actually encourage people to do more physical activity.

I also garden I don't do much in the wintertime, but soon as my spring break is here, I will start the gardening back up again.

I harvested a lot of herbs over the summer and put them in jars and give them out as gifts.

So those are the kinds of things that I enjoy.

Yeah, I know that gardening does do that for me.

And you know, they always talk about getting your feet in the earth, right?

And that's how spiritually and important that is for us to be connected.

There's research on that.

Yes, there's actually a field of study where they are putting people in nature and it does reduce stress.

So APS getting your hands in the soil, getting your feet in the soil.

Right.

100%.

I sometimes when I know that I'm going to have a really, really stressful week in Washington, I will try and schedule before I come on the plane to go down to the beach, shout out to all my people down in Dorsch Beach in Frederick Stead, which is very close to my office.

I'll go in the water, take a good soak, maybe swim a little bit, just get back home in time to take a shower and then hop on that plane.

And that I also, you know, I think I get a little glow from it and I can the other members will be like, You were home this weekend, weren't you?

maybe, you know, everybody has their district.

I just happened to live in the America's Paradise.

I can.

I can't help that.

Yeah, well, stress reduction is available to all people.

Not everybody will have the opportunity to go to the Virgin.

I heard there.

There's lots of Virgin Islands who are getting on the you get in the grind and you can be, you know, So I remember my husband and I working and and just doing everything and then like, my gosh, we haven't been to the beach in a month, right?

We're right there.

We're walking distance and we haven't gone because we just get in the grind.

But just taking five, ten, 15 minutes out right of a day, 100% can make a difference.

Those who make it to those kind of diseases.

And so many people I mean, there's so much you can do.

I mean, starting off this growing some herbs in pods, parsley, oregano, some of those things just imparts.

Adding that to your food is just tremendous, you know, And there's a lot that you can do in pots.

I grew quite a bit of food in pots.

You don't have to have a plot.

And actually the the where I grow my food, it's a raised bed because I was sick of the squirrels and the other animals getting to my my food.

So I put it on my dad.

So there's so many ways that you can grow food.

It's not just for us, it's for thrushes.

You got to watch.

Those thrushes will tear your food up while your plants up.

But is there any other last things that you'd like to share with the people of the Virgin Islands?

I would just say just start growing some food.

I mean, just if you just have some pots with herbs in it, you know, and the herbs are so high in antioxidants and anti-cancer properties, you know, you have to dig up your backyard to do that.

Is this a pot?

I think everybody's interested in health.

Yeah.

They come and see me and I give them advice.

But if you just will grow some fruits, that fruits necessarily, there's a little more difficult but simple vegetables herbs like he says, and spices, you can really make a difference.

Those things, even though something as lowly as a rosemary or thyme or, you know, some of those other herbs, they really do make a difference in reducing the risk for chronic disease.

So I would just advise people to grow those things, add them to their foods.

Those are simple things that they can do today to really improve their health.

Yeah, well, the Virgin Islands on St Croix, we have the largest agricultural fair on the island of St Clair in February, and people come from all over the Caribbean and that's an opportunity for us to be able to get those plants We do.

A lot of people always have a fruit tree, some kind of fruit in their backyard as well, that they can grow.

And that really does do something not just for your own health, but our environment, Right.

Getting those plants out there into the ether is very helpful to climate change as well.

So thank you guys so much.

Absolutely.

Coming and being a part of the discussion, this has been really great and I've learned quite a bit.

We'll come down and visit you and come on down.

I know you want to come in February, January, February.

Those are the months to come, right?

Absolutely.

We'll be back.

Good, good, good.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Well, that wraps up this edition of The Washington Report.

I want to thank you all to the audience for joining us.

Dr.

Miner, Mr. Axim, thank you very much for taking the time to join me today.

To all Virgin Islanders, one of the things I want you to know is here in Washington, as we work on the farm bill, we are always trying to support people of the Virgin Islands.

We're always trying to support our schools, our elders, as well as those in agriculture and livestock, as well as our fishermen to do what's needed to make the Virgin Islands stronger, not just in spirit, but also in body.

So to all my Virgin Islanders, stay very strong.

Thank you.