The Caribbean Food Crop Society

 How it All Started

 Hugh C. Miller
 A Founding Member


 How pleasant it is to recall the years which followed close on
the end of World War II! Years which witnessed the creation of
many cooperative institutions reflecting man's eagerness to share
experiences and activities with his comrades.
 The mood of the times found expression in many publications
but perhaps the most widely circulated of these was Wendell
Wilkie's One World.
 During the war, the menace of the German U-boats which
had, at one time, threatened to isolate the Caribbean islands
from supplies from outside the area, had been effectively blunted
by the activities of a Caribbean Commission-representing the
nations which exercised sovereignty over most of the Caribbean
Islands in those days. This Commission had organised movement
of supplies up and down the Caribbean island chain with
minimal exposure to the submarine threat. So impressive was the
success achieved by the Commission in this activity that the
member governments decided, despite the pressures and preoc-
cupations of World War II, to expand Caribbean cooperation in-
to the social, educational and economic fields.
 But for the individual islands, the early post-war period
ushered in the era of the "Winds of Change" and the emergence
of movements towards independence and national sovereignty.
 Reflecting these developments, the Caribbean Commission
with membership drawn from metropolitan countries exercising
sovereignty in the area, was replaced in 1961 by the "Caribbean
Organisation" with membership drawn from the Federation of
the West Indies, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin
Islands of the United States, France for its departments in
Guyana, Martinique and Guadeloupe, the Netherlands Antilles,
Surinam and Guyana. The governments of Great Britain, the
United States of America and The Netherlands were represented
in the Council of the Organisation as "observers."
 Itself a creature of the trend toward international cooperation,
the Caribbean Organisation established as its main objective the
promotion of cooperation, sharing of knowledge and experience
between member countries, and exploring and exploiting oppor-
tunities for united action on a broad cultural, social and economic
front.
 Among the areas to which special attention was addressed were
intra-Caribbean trade and sharing of agricultural experience and
research. In pursuit of these objectives the Caribbean Organisa-
tion with the cooperation of the government of the Com-
monwealth and the University of Puerto Rico organised in
February 1962 a demonstration tour in Puerto Rico on the pro-
duction and marketing of vegetables and food crops.
 Some 70 participants representing 21 Caribbean countries, and
including research and extension specialists, farmers and other
persons with an interest in the production, processing and/or
marketing of food crops and farm supplies attended the five-day
tour.


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 With the help of the translating services provided by the Carib-
bean Organisation, papers were circulated and discussion
facilitated between persons who previously had been separated by
differences of language as well as by metropolitan affiliation.
 It is not surprising that, by the time the tour had ended, con-
siderable interest had been generated in the idea of creating
facilities for securing, on a permanent and continuing basis,
cooperation and sharing of experience and knowledge between
scientists and farmers and, indeed, all persons within the Carib-
bean area interested in any aspect of food production and
distribution.
 Among the tour participants, Dr. Richard Bond, Officer in
Charge of the U.S. Federal Experiment Station at Kingshill, St.
Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Dr. Arnold Krochmal, Hor-
ticulturist attached to the Station, decided to take positive action
to secure the establishment of the facilities needed.
 With characteristic enthusiasm and persistence, Arnold
Krochmal, aided and abetted by his chief, set about the task of
securing support and active assistance from the Caribbean
Orgnisation and certain key personnel within the Caribbean
region who enjoyed wide respect and repute.

 The Caribbean Organisation readily placed secretarial,
translating and interpreting services fully at the disposal of the
small team (A. Krochmal, F. Aponte Aponte and Hugh Miller),
which had begun working to establish a society or association to
achieve the objectives sought. As a result, contact was made with
important agricultural leaders in the Caribbean countries served
at that time (1963) by the Organisation. The planners were great-
ly encouraged by the many warm expressions of agreement and
enthusiastic promises of support which they received.

 Accordingly, the date for an inaugural meeting for establish-
ment of the society was set as May 3, 1963 to be held at the offices
of the Secretariat of the Caribbean Organisation in Hato Rey,
Puerto Rico. Invitations for attendance were issued to all those
persons who had expressed interest.
 A number of persons responded advising inability to travel to
Puerto Rico to attend but asking that their interest in the forma-
tion of the Society and willingness to seek membership be noted.


The Inaugural Meeting
 The inaugural meeting was duly convened. In attendance were
 persons resident in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, ten persons
 resident in Puerto Rico, one person representing Barbados, and
 four persons representing the Secretariat of the Caribbean
 Organisation.

 PROCEEDINGS of the CARIBBEAN FOOD CROPS SOCIETY-VOL. XX