How underwater statues and organic farms are helping Grenada stay sustainable

Theresa Marryshow is an organic farmer with an unlikely mission.

It’s not like she grows a few of the tastiest varieties of rocket, cucumbers and lettuce on the eastern side of Grenada, a small island within the British West Indies – although she does.

She also has a message for visitors: This is a spot with the potential to sustainably feed itself and its guests.

“People don’t understand how the food gets here,” says Marryshow, a retired government agriculture official who runs her family farm in Bacolet, St. David, within the island’s rural southeast. “They don’t know that someone prepared the ground and planted it and cared for it and harvested it.”

Visitors come to Grenada for its white sandy beaches and rainforests and to remain at its famous all-inclusive resorts comparable to Sandals Sandals Grenada and Spice Island Beach Resort. But Marryshow, who can also be president of the Grenada Network of Rural Women Producers, wants them to develop latest ideas about sustainability and ways to save lots of the planet.

She receives help from forward-thinking hotels, environmental activists who construct remarkable underwater attractions, and other farmers who’ve a spiritual connection to the land. And once visitors understand the magnitude of the issue — and the possible solutions — Marryshow says a lightweight bulb goes on, “and they get it.”

This is an element five of a series on sustainable tourism in Central America and the Caribbean. Here is an element one about it Sustainability in Panama, Part two over Saving Bonaire’s primary tourist attraction, Part three over Aruba is struggling to stay sustainable, and part 4 about it Curaçao’s conservation efforts.

Fresh produce delivery to Grenada – and more

Cooperative farming took off in the course of the pandemic when Grenada, like many islands, was cut off from the remaining of the world. Marryshow had began her organic farm on a small plot of land. The Sandals Foundation, a nonprofit that supports local communities, asked if it could provide them with the vegatables and fruits the resort needed. The foundation also offered to assist her construct a brand new patio and kitchen to fulfill increased demand. Marryshow usually supplied Sandals with boxes of lettuce, mint, peppers and herbs.

Marryshow says the concept grew quickly.

“Other hotels and restaurants soon became interested in what we had to offer,” she says.

Marryshow then helped construct a network of farmers who specialized in numerous vegatables and fruits. Some provided fruit comparable to mangoes, bananas and breadfruit. Others grew herbs comparable to oregano and mint.

“We often use their network to find out what we need from them,” says Deleon Forrester, a spokeswoman for Sandals Grenada.

Several times a month, Marryshow also hosts a bunch of guests from Sandals Grenada and other resorts for brunch. She offers them a tour of her farm and serves a lightweight brunch with cocoa tea, bread constructed from breadfruit flour and fresh eggs from her farm.

“I want people to know that you can do this, that you can be sustainable in a place like Grenada,” she says.

Your message resonates across this island.

Farm to table at Spice Island Beach Resort

At Spice Island Beach Resortan all-inclusive hotel south of St. George’s on the Caribbean side of Grenada, they’re taking the concept of ​​farm-to-table seriously.

Janelle Hopkin, the resort’s general manager, says she was bored with just talking about sustainability – it was all talk and no motion – so she decided to take motion. That’s why she planted an organic herb and vegetable garden on the property.

“This is where we grow all of our vegetables such as lettuce and herbs that we use in our recipes,” she explains.

Calling it a garden is maybe an understatement. It is large enough to be a farm and practices sustainability by collecting and recycling rainwater, composting food waste, and never using pesticides.

Hopkin says there is a huge appetite for farm-to-table food at her on-site restaurant, Oliver. However, running a five-star property and attempting to be sustainable comes with an inherent challenge.

She says practicing sustainability requires intention—and that typically brings with it some discomfort.

For example, when the hotel installed sensors that mechanically turned off the air con units when guests opened their patio doors to go to the beach, that meant they’d to be prepared to return to a room that wasn’t at the perfect temperature, and the it might take 10 to quarter-hour to chill down again.

“It requires that guests themselves have a sustainability mindset and actively participate in the hotel’s environmental efforts,” says Hopkin.

But agriculture is not the only way Grenada is attempting to stay sustainable.

This underwater sculpture park that might save Grenada’s reefs

Phil Saye can also be on duty in Grenada. He wants to save lots of the delicate reefs across the island.

Back in 2006, he noticed that too many boats were being interested in scenic Flamingo Bay and were slowly destroying the reef. Saye, who owned a diving shop on the time, joined forces Jason deCaires Taylora British artist who lived on the island founded the Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park within the Molinere Beauséjour marine protected area, north of Grenada’s capital, St. George’s.

Today, the sculpture park is a legend within the Caribbean and one in every of the island’s most visited attractions. Divers and snorkelers can view 96 underwater artworks, including those recently installed Coral Carnivala group of statues in a carnival parade.

Visitors are in disbelief after they emerge from their dives. Submerged art is the very last thing they expected to see within the Caribbean. When they discover that the statues are also good for sustainability because they draw visitors away from the reef, they consider it a bonus.

Saye also founded that Artificial reef project in Grenada, which has sunk concrete pyramids offshore to guard the prevailing reef. Most of the organization’s reef conservation efforts happen away from recreational diving boats and ensure a healthy marine environment, he says.

“The idea was to create a stable structure for recruiting marine life and increasing the biodiversity of the area,” says Saye.

That would keep divers away from the reef and potentially attract latest life to the realm. Coral and plankton quickly attach themselves to anything you sink in these waters, creating a synthetic reef.

Sitting within the open-air lobby Calabash Grenada, an all-inclusive hotel near the airport, Saye says Grenada has come a good distance since he began pushing for a more environmentally sustainable island. Bureaucrats questioned him. Hotels were suspicious of his activism. But interestingly, the community support was all the time there. And there is a reason for that.

How sustainability works in Grenada

Compared to other destinations, sustainability is a simple sell in Grenada. Ask anyone concerning the importance of protecting the environment and so they will likely be joyful to let you know what they’ve done. Here, taxi drivers describe what’s of their herb gardens or talk concerning the solar panels they wish to buy to make their homes more independent of the grid.

To discover why Grenadians feel like they’re in tune with nature, you should visit Atiba Mawuto, a Rastafarian farmer who lives within the island’s rural Mamma Cannes region, high within the green hills overlooking the Atlantic .

Mawuto grows exotic fruits and herbs here, including nutmeg, bananas and cocoa. He also offers tours of the farm and explains the Rastafari approach to natural resource management. Rastafarianism teaches self-sufficiency and sustainability through responsible land use.

He encouraged visitors to Grenada to take an interest in its approach to sustainability. It’s about using only what you wish, recycling and most significantly, listening to nature. When tourists see his farm and listen to him speak about sustainability, they understand what it’s all about. And they know what needs to vary.

True sustainability, he says, “is a way of life.”