Grad Design 3: Permaculture in the Bahamas

This semester’s project site is New Providence island, commonly known as Nassau, in the Bahamas. We had two weeks to learn everything the internet could tell us about our project site, and then all thirteen of us would take a week-long field trip to see it in real life.

Prior to our arrival, we split up the tasks and did a thorough inventory and analysis of the island, so we’d know what to look for during our field trip.

Two weeks was not enough time to anticipate everything we would need to snap photos of, and one week onsite was not enough to explore the possibilities.

Finding data, especially GIS data turned out nearly impossible for some things. One classmate traced every single bus route on the island because no map existed, then joked (in all seriousness) about selling it to the Bahamian government.

We studied the topography, geology, and hydrology to create a transect model through the island. We found a porous limestone layer beneath the thin layer of soil, and a freshwater lens that’s becoming brackish due to saltwater intrusion.

It’s this proximity to limestone, with so little fertile soil on top, that makes large-scale farming difficult (… can’t we just build more soil? … maybe farming shouldn’t be so large scale?).

Issues we noticed onsite were lots of trash, little recreational space, and very expensive food. There was also limited public trasportation, a mess of Haitian refugee camps in the middle of the island, critiques of the educational system, and the threat of rising seas.

Me being me, my ears perked up at food. My prior research had revealed that Bahamian food production is low and imports are high and my in-person experience proved that costs of nutrient-dense real food were exorbitant. I would dig deeper into this food situation.

Apparently food production isn’t keeping up with population growth. That’s a problem. Not just here, but everywhere, in one way or another.

So they have a ton of fish. They’re exploiting the seas, exporting most of it and creating an overfishing problem. They export almost no meat, dairy or poultry, or maybe they’re just not producing it in the first place. Something to look into.

My initial thoughts (and preliminary sketches): let’s grow more food! In schoolyards, churchyards, and everywhere in between!

In theory it sounds peachy. But let’s get to the bottom of this — there must be a reason they haven’t thought of it already.

I put an agricultural focus to my historical analysis and I find that cultivation has failed repeatedly since the arrival of Columbus and the introduction of monocropping. Who knew?

The ancient Arawak and Lucayan civilizations practiced what was known as pothole farming, where they used organic matter to create rich productive fertile soil. The pothole or conuco method of cultivation guaranteed them a dependable food source. They created rich soil despite the salt water and limestone down below.

This was my confirmation that it’s time we get back to basics and introduce a not-so-new form of agriculture to the island.

After the trip we got back to work. We had the option to pair up or go it alone. After a few weeks of working alone, Maidy and I realize we have similar projects and might benefit from teaming up and sharing the workload. Regenerative Farmscapes is born.

The goal of this project is to enhance quality of life through environmental awareness, food security, and a means for economic empowerment. Bringing agriculture down to the human scale will encourage the Bahamian people to become involved in their food production.

Working models that demonstrate viable and sustainable methods of planting, production and harvesting are interwoven into varying scales of everyday life, including educational centers, market places and recreational amenities.

Maidy had already dug into the traditional agricultural situation.

And she’d mapped out a soil analysis for New Providence. Silly me, I figured we could just build soil everywhere!

I argued my point about the permaculture concept and made a simple diagram for my audience, evaluators, and stakeholders to understand.

Why permaculture in the Bahamas? This way we could sustainably provide the community with fresh food, and it would indeed be more effective than larger-scale mechanical farming. Additionally, it provides work and learning opportunities for a struggling economy.

I dug up some case studies, including another one in the Bahamas. The Island School, on the neighboring island of Eleuthera, is a self-sustaining educational site which faces the same challenges as New Providence. Indeed this keeps the community busy and fed. If they can do it, so can we!

Additionally, while we’re implementing our regenerative and biodynamic practices and waiting for those lush and loamy layers of soil to build up, other ways to increase food production include:

• Aquaculture
• Livestock
• Aquaponics
• Greenhouses
• Fisheries
• Ancient methods (pothole farming, chinampas)

Where to implement all this:

• Wetlands
• Coastlines
• Backyards
• Right-of-ways
• Recreational paths

Recreational orchard trails would be a product of community involvement. These trails are intended for recreational use throughout the island and connecting to various farm concepts including the island’s production hub or Farm Park.

A Farm Park would serve as a hub for the small- to large-scale farming activities around the island. Here would be educational centers, accomodation for workers, demonstration gardens, a food forest, and sheer abundance of love, learning, and resources.

Orchard trails serve as a network connecting to various production centers and recreational activities, including Lake Killarney. This unique site is home of the “chinampas” where fertile soil from the lake bed is built into islands growing tomatoes, kale, and other essential crops. Recreation is encouraged and made possible by boardwalks on and connecting to these islands and kayak launching areas.

The real deal: