Dec. 22, 2008 — It took more than three years from the time the idea was hatched until Monday afternoon, when Dale K.K. Browne, president of the V.I. Farmers' Cooperative, stood with Gov. John deJongh Jr. and Agriculture Commissioner Louis Petersen receiving a $600,000 check for the co-op's Operation Breadbasket.
But Browne knows that Monday's ceremony at the Economic Development Authority's Frederiksted office wasn't the end. It's only the beginning.
"Now we have the materials, the tools we need," Browne said Monday after the ceremony in which the loan was finalized, the papers signed and the check handed over.
Using the money provided by the Department of Agriculture through a loan agreement with the Economic Development Authority, the co-op will enter into a long-term lease for 60 acres of land near the Beeston Hill area and begin Operation Breadbasket, a program to begin producing food for the island of St. Croix, then the Virgin Islands and eventually for export to the world.
"Farming is not just a hobby, it's a business," the governor said during the ceremony. "This is a viable industry."
As a former banker, deJongh said, he was struck by how well-prepared the farmers' co-op's application and business plan were: "Everything was done properly."
The governor also said the ceremony showed government programs can work.
"It's a testament to the fact that when there's a good idea … we will be there," he said.
The idea was born in 2005, Browne said. In 2006, the co-op received a $172,950 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a feasibility study, marketing study, marketing and a business plan. The grant provided analysis of local and off-island markets to determine the potential for local production and the best and most profitable mix of local agricultural products that will be produced to service those markets.
In February 2008, co-op members met with deJongh to discuss their proposal. He left the meeting suitably impressed, and in May the farmers learned they were to get the loan.
What followed was a whirlwind of paperwork leading up to Monday's session, during which Browne and Agriculture Commissioner Louis Peteresen signed the memorandum of agreement and the promissory note. Then the farmers' group was presented with a check.
The co-op has already begun a farmers' market on the Beeston Hill site. In about two months, Browne said, the first seeds will get planted on the 60-acre site, with plans for 17 farmers to grow food on the acreage.
The co-op will also take over management of 200 acres of hayfield until recently managed by the Department of Agriculture, with plans to produce high-quality feed for the island's livestock farmers.
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