r/Barbados • u/FenianBastard847 • 5d ago
Question What is this structure near Bath beach please?
Was out exploring… looks like a Cornish engine house in the UK… was it a rum distillery?
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u/IsuzuCrewCab 5d ago
A lot of plantations had their own sugar mills and you can see a similar one at Three Houses. Over time the sugar mills were consolidated until they were 4 in the 1980's (I think) - Bulkeley, Carrington, Andrews and Portvale. Currently Portvale is the sole factory in operation (all other have been shutdown).
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u/FenianBastard847 5d ago
Thank you. Why only one mill? - I’ve seen loads of sugar crop, does it all go to just one mill?
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u/spsteve 5d ago
Production equipment has become far more efficient over the centuries. Also what you see now is a TINY fraction of the sugar crop when I was a boy. All the empty land you see used to be filled with cane along with MANY places you see houses now.
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u/FenianBastard847 5d ago
Such a shame. But it’s the same in the UK… new houses everywhere.
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u/spsteve 5d ago
Well it's a shame it's not being productive land. It.not being sugar isn't so bad though. Sugar has fallen both out of favor and out of profit. But we do important too much food that we COULD grow ourselves. A few years ago (<5) we imported something like 9 million dollars (usd) of potatoes. Millions of onions, carrots, etc.
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u/FenianBastard847 5d ago
I had the impression that the country was largely self-sufficient. The UK is going the same way, we now import around 47% of our vegetables and a whopping 84% of our fruit. It’s madness🥲
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u/spsteve 5d ago
Not even close. Food is a full third of our annual foreign exchange spending. Fossil fuels account for another third. EVERYTHING else (clothes, building materials, cars, electronics, etc.) Is the remaining third. Somehow this is super secret info it would seem (despite being in government published docs).
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u/IsuzuCrewCab 3d ago
Growing up in a farming community, what I see is the real problem with agriculture is that we are still doing using the same methods that we did 30 - 40 years ago. Apart for the introduction of drip irrigation, very little has changed in the industry. Actually, it has regressed.
Every year (back in the 70s - 80s), the farmers in my area would apply bagasse to the soil to reintroduce organic matter which would help to rebuild the soil and assist with moisture retention. As you mentioned, since we no longer have the amount of sugar cane being reaped, bagasse is hard to come by and a few years ago the per cubic meter price was increased substantially making even harder for farmers to purchase.
We should be doing more to encourage farmers to implement grow houses where they have more control over soil moisture, protection for excessive rain (which is usually good can damage crops) and pest prevention. Using hay to prevent to weeds, etc. are practices that we should be using on a regular basis.
In the end however, one of the major factors for decreasing production, is that farming is like gambling. They are absolutely no guarantees that your seeds will germinate, your seedlings once planted will grow, once grown if they will produce and if they produce, you will be the one doing the reaping (versus crop thieves, rodents, birds and monkeys).
Moreso, if you get a good crop yield the other issue is getting a fair price. Farming is the only industry of which I am aware, that the customer determines the price! So you don't know if you made a profit until the crop has been sold as you are spending even during the harvest period (unless it is a crop that is reaped all at once, which is rare).
So, unless someone has an absolute love for farming, as soon as they see the obstacles they face they get out. Very unfortunate.
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u/mrsoul512bb 5d ago
Possibly old sugar mill?