Caribbean Region | BlogZynergy

FOODSCAPING A GOOD AGRICULTURAL ALTERNATIVE FOR THE CARIBBEAN

Let me start like this…

As the world community is growing day by day, we as people must think how to produce more food on long term, without hurting the nature. In this blog I would like to send some triggers to Governments/Policymakers and other important/relevant authorities in the Caribbean Region especially Suriname and Guyana. A certain mind set is needed in combination of a long term mission and vision on this subject.

WHAT IS A FOODSCAPE?

A foodscape is simply the integration of edible plants in traditional ornamentallandscapes (around our very own living space). It is all about creating the most of the square footage you have access to.

WHY FOODSCAPE?

· Utilize an ornamental base for yourself

· Increase bio‐diversity step by step

· Beneficial insects will be around you

· Reduced disease/stress

· Manage all organically

· Select your own choice of plants to create an engaging space

· Conversation starter all the time

· Grow in containers, window boxes and vertical systems

· Alternative growing systems are easy to do

· Rooftops offer plenty plenty sunny square meters to run this business

· Think outside of the box

· Use the existing landscape

· Full sun in the Caribbean

· Easily irrigated

· Maintain regularly

· Grow on YOUR terms… it is a wonderful hobby

Sample Mission Statement

Our/My mission is to empower our/my customers with foodscape structures, protocols and plants that make producing food simple and lasting, accessible and serviceable to a broad customer demographic.

We/I aim to be knowledgeable, innovative and uncommonly helpful as we foster a greener world for the future.

Sample Vision Statement

Our/My vision is to restore the balance between green space (plants) and hard space (concrete, steel, glass) wherever you are.

We aim to create a greener more hospitable planet Earth by proclaiming the benefits of plants and helping ourself/clients to successfully install and cultivate them (also on vertical surfaces).

Some Benefits of Foodscaping

Foodscaping offers a variety of benefits, many of which are a result of fulfillment of the human need to connect with nature. The research study which is also known as ‘biophilia,’ a growing field of study that emphasizes the physiological and resultant economic benefits that come from restoring natural connections in our built environment.

Performance + Productivity

Our innate need to connect with nature is known as biophilia. This is the serious driving force behind our boost in mood, sharper focus, and stronger immune system when we are exposed to natural environments. Foodscaping is a great way to trigger the biophilic response and improve performance and productivity (for everyone).

Better Attendance

Workplaces/enviroments which incorporate biophilic design elements such as access to nature have reduced absenteeism, fewer complaints, and improved staff retention. Happy people will be around.

Reduce Fatigue/Stress

Providing access to nature in the workplace can reduce eyestrain, relieve mental fatigue, and improve focus on tasks during the day, but also at night.

Increase Output

Integrating plants into workplaces yields productivity gains and reduced psychological stress and pshycological pressure.

Enhance Performance

Students exposure to nature has been correlated with higher academic performance in Mathematics and English.

Improve Focus

Studies/researches have also demonstrated that exposure to nature eases symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Attract Customers

Shoppers will stay longer in stores and visit more frequently when plants are heavily prevalent inside and outside retail settings. Believe it or not.

Stronger Sales

Consumers might purchase more merchandise and are surely willing to pay higher prices for goods when surrounded by nice nature.

Higher Rents

Foodscaping environments can be used to improve the view in leased space, translating into more dollars guests or tenants are willing to spend during their staying.

Recover Faster

Patients who physically interact with plants use less medication and experience significantly reduced recovery times after medical procedures.

Enhance Experience

Using plants and planted walls as well in healthcare enhances the experience of patients, visitors and staff, who report greater satisfaction and positive feelings in the presence of nature.

Ease Anxiety

Did you know that researchers have found lowered cortisol levels and reduced reported anxiety levels correlating with access and interaction with plants.

Positive Emotions

Colors can have an effect on our/my very own emotions. Green is linked to safety, so green foliage typical of indoor plantings create a comforting environment. Think about it.

Food Production

Food scaping and especially vertical gardens are a popular solution in the rising urban farming movement as horizontal space can be difficult to come by in densely populated areas. Yes even in rural and suburban areas, restaurateurs, senior caregivers, healthcare providers, and homeowners are turning to food scaping and vertical farming for affordable, low-maintenance food production.

Living Art

Good food scaping (vertical green walls) can serve as a means of expression, creating a unique space for people to express themselves in various ways.

Balanced Solutions

Good Landscaped communities are more attractive to tourists and shoppers, and community planners can balance the desire for greenness with the desire for wide, welcoming sidewalks through green food producing walls.

The plants in the living wall cool and beautify neighborhoods without taking up ground space, and surface runoff can be collected, treated and used for irrigation, reducing site runoff.

Community Bonds on Long Term

Similarly, nice green communities correlate with increased sense of pride and place, levels of trust, and civic participation. Residents in nice green communities spend more time outdoors and forming bonds with neighbors. You don’t have to agree with me.

Increased positive public sentiment can support other community goals, such as maintaining population levels that bolster a community’s economic sustainability and stability. This will increase more love for food scaping.

Healthy Food

When used to grow herbs and vegetables, produce from a living vertical wall provides supplemental food that is healthy for our body and the environment.

Children—and adults—who are involved in the process of growing their own food are more likely to have healthier diets.

Closing Statement

I really hope to have triggered you with this short blog.

Let us collectively spread this message further and start to create lovely green producing communities not far from home.

If you have any other suggestions/ideas, feel free to drop them down in the comments here below.

If everyone join together and do their part, the results will be sun shining very quickly. Meh done talk ! Do deh Ting…

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WITH CURRENT TECHNOLOGY, A LOT IS POSSIBLE, LET’S DO WHAT CAN BE DONE FOR AND BY NICKERIE… WE ONLY DELIVER GREEN ENERGY FROM NICKERIAN SOIL

Now that the new government has been formed in Suriname, it is more than ever time to think carefully about how to make Nickerie a top district of Suriname. We don't have to keep inventing the wheel. So many things are obvious to start with. In this blog I start generating electricity by the local population. We have the sun with us. Policymakers must work towards promoting the green economy. By bringing the people with you,

Nickerie will eventually grow into a sustainable energy district. Together with the local population and other actors, the self-generation of sustainable zone energy will give the district enormous support. Together, the energy transition will have an impact elsewhere in the country. Suriname is getting greener and greener.

As awareness increases, more people will contribute together to biodiversity, nature conservation and the quality of life of local communities.

ALWAYS GREEN

We must all go for more and more Green. It means that in our future (the new normal) many more people will use energy which they have generated themselves. Even if the sun is not shining, or if there is no wind and the generation of green electricity at that time is minimal, this is no problem.

A bit of technology is available for everything. It requires new developments and behavioral change. It is ambitious, but it is possible. If we do it together. Dare to dream big. Who knows, we may see a lot of people driving around with solar panels on the roof of their car[s].

As an active blogger, from time to time I will also focus on Suriname where I come from and stay. Sometimes the triggers may be less beautiful, but they are certainly constructive and offer eye openers to policy makers and other interested parties.

The
Regional
Blog
Authority

URBAN FARMING MAKE IT YOUR NEW HOBBY

Why a diverse ecosystem of money can do us good

A Short intensive message from the Caribbean Blog Authority to the Caribbean Region.

Community coins appear all over the world. From the Bangla Pesa in Kenyan slums to the London Brixton Pound: alternative currencies make a different economy possible, in which groups of people can give value to things that are today considered economically worthless, or with which local economies can become more resilient. How does the phenomenon work?

It is absurd for our money system to work with monoculture, while we know from biology that if there is something wrong with that one culture that you are planting in your field, you have a huge problem. We also saw that during the financial crisis of ten years ago. "
In nature there is almost no waste, everything is reused. Just as we can use the natural cycle for our own gain, we must also be able to come sooner or later to a diverse ecosystem of money that can do us all good in, among other things, the Caribbean.

For deep consideration I wish to quote the following:
People who are concerned about sustainability - with issues such as climate change, environmental degradation, food and water shortages, population growth and energy consumption - are inclined not to worry too much about the money system. They are also not looking for solutions in monetary innovations. Even economists who are also concerned about sustainability are rarely aware that our money system systematically encourages unsustainable patterns of behavior that eventually threaten the survival of people on this planet.

Is money monoculture or a large pyramid scheme that increases inequality in the world.

There is hope:
 The good news is that the information and communication revolution that we are experiencing today is pushing us in the right direction.
The Caribbean Region is facing major challenges.

If you don’t agree with me, I respect that, but this is just my personal opinion.Thanks for reading anyway.Triggers are smoke signals which tells you there is fire somewhere….

From the Digital Desk of the

Caribbean Blog Authority.

Why we have to work 30 hours…Is the Caribbean Region ready for this implementation.

WORKING TREND WATCH

Although vacancies are increasingly asking for staff without a ‘9 to 5 mentality’, eight hours of work per day in the Caribbean region has been the norm for 100 years. In other countries there is already a lot of experimentation with fewer working hours. The Swedish experiments with the 30-hour working week have reached many international media.

Work five days, 6 hours a day

The Swedish experiments first compared two different (working) models. The first model focuses on the 30-hour working week (five days working six hours a day), where managers give employees more freedom. From that freedom, as more can decide for themselves, they also produce more and their motivation is higher.
The second model is just the opposite, and uses the traditional 40-hour working week. In this model, the focus is on management decisions and management. Managers motivate employees by properly indicating what happens in the process and when. In this way the company runs fully efficiently.

Experiments abroad

In a nursing home in Götenberg (Sweden) they experimented for no less than two years with this 30-hour working week from the Swedish model, after which they were thoroughly evaluated. What turned out to be? Everything had become more positive. Less fatigue, less absenteeism, less stress and higher client satisfaction. The only downside was increased costs. Logical, when employees are paid eight hours and work six hours. The revenues turned out not to be large enough to compensate for this gap. That is why the experiment at the Svartedalen nursing home was not continued, but the tests are continuing elsewhere.

For example, there is a Toyota maintenance center that works with complete satisfaction with shifts of twice six hours. A marketing agency in Scotland with highly skilled knowledge workers has also been working with the six-hour working day for two years. They start at 9:30 am and close the door at 3:45 pm. The result: the output and quality of that output are just as high as before – with the 40-hour working week. Absence and stress have decreased and there is a better work-life balance.

Experiments in the Netherlands

The Dutch are good at part-time work. A logical consequence of the one and a half earner model: man works full time, woman works part time. With the arrival of the 30-hour working week, the equal division of tasks between men and women suddenly comes much closer. To achieve that, customization is required. After all, you have to complete tasks from a 40-hour working week to a 30-hour working week. Employees must decide for themselves what the improvement should look like, and continue to hold onto this. If employees are given more room to determine the customized work themselves, then the motivation remains higher in the long term. And to achieve that, the biggest change is in the mindset – especially of the employer.

By experimenting with shorter working days or weeks, their fear can be relieved because they start to see the benefits. Offering freedom in working hours and workplaces (and thereby offering technologies such as video conferencing ) also helps to increase attractiveness as an employer.
Shorter working days also offer a solution to the debate about hard professions, longer working hours and sustainable employability. The generation pacts and deals on part-time work during the final phase of working life already show this.

Cost

And what does this mean for the costs (also a frequently heard objection from employers)? Can working shorter hours be rewarded with a full-time salary? We can conclude that at least half of the hours is earned back by the increase in productivity. Whether that is sufficient to invest by employers in sustainable employability or by the government in a distant future in which fewer people are needed to do the same work can be seen. It would be interesting and strengthen our position as a pioneering country.

Focus is the engine

To make a 30-hour working week a success, it is important to give a clear focus to your employees. The fact is that if people have less time available, they are more critical of what really needs to be done. They often achieve the same quality in less time. It is a combination of the right assignment, the right deadline, sufficient appreciation and room to excel. On that leads to motivated employees, whether you should start with that motivation is chicken and egg.

In the Caribbean region (CARICOM), Governments must come together to discuss about this.As the climate is changing very fast, we have to change systems.