Home to one of the Island's most treasured beauty spots and farms galore, Smith's South is the ideal constituency for green-thumbed Cole Simons. This week Tim Smith visited Constituency Eight with Up Your Street.

With its countless acres of farmland, Smith's South is the perfect example of how agriculture doesn't have to be the Island's forgotten industry.

And local MP Cole Simons believes Government is missing a trick by failing to take advantage of the job opportunities, and path to self-sufficiency, that would come hand-in-hand with revitalising farming.

The nature-loving Shadow Environment Minister boasts Constituency Eight has more farms than anywhere else on the Island; he calls the Island's dairies the best in the world and takes great pride in his area's Spittal Pond.

He believes more Bermudians feel the same — even if nobody seems to grow up wanting to be a farmer these days.

"You look at the Ag Show every year and you see the number of Bermudians attending that," said Mr. Simons.

"They wouldn't miss it for the world because they want to showcase their products and animals and they want to see what others are doing.

"A study on Bermuda's agricultural industry said the Government has to commit to make a decision on how they want to take it forward. You have tourism, international business; this is just another industry right in our back yard, ripe for the picking.

"We have open space that can be developed and provide employment to a number of Bermudians who can't be employed in other industries. Look at the money made in the farming industry.

"You just have to make it more attractive. You have to promote it more in schools."

Mr. Simons said more farming would bring both financial and environmental benefits.

"At some point, we have to try and support ourselves from an economic point of view. Growing your own fruit and vegetables will basically help you to manage the cost of your household expenses and give you the value of learning the business, of working with nature," he said.

"I believe farming is not promoted to the degree that it should be. When I was going to school we had farming in the curriculum; every school had a little garden.

"Bermuda's success here to fore has resulted because we have been known to be a garden paradise. We have to protect that image; that's what we are selling overseas.

"We are two hours away from a bustling metropolitan area: you get off the plane and you are here in a garden paradise. Like all gardens, you have to make sure you manage its beauty."

Clad in a trash bag for the majority of a very rainy afternoon as he gave The Royal Gazette a tour of his constituency, the MP didn't seem to mind getting a soaking as he paused to pat cows in his favourite spot, Spittal Pond.

He called for the nature reserve to be given the same protection against future development as New York's Central Park.

"We are privileged to have Spittal Pond in Smith's and as Shadow Minister I'm doing all I can to support it," he said.

"It's important to preserve open spaces. It keeps people connected to the essence of life; it allows them to smell the roses. When you walk through Spittal Pond, it calms you and it allows you to reflect and it's a stress relief.

"We need to put in legislation that would provide inalienable rights to protect these resources and open space, like Central Park in New York. It's so well protected, no policy, no federal government, no state government can amend that zoning.

"Nobody can come in and say we are going to expand New York City to infringe upon Central Park. It's protected forever."

A number of times, Mr. Simons has called for the Island to provide a thorough sustainable development plan, taking into account social, economic and environmental needs and population growth.

He also said residents could do their bit by maintaining their own gardens instead of turning them into lawns.

Among the many winding country tracks through Smith's South is one that leads to the highest point of land in Bermuda, Town Hill's Folly Tower, built in 1908 as a tourist attraction by Henry James Zuill, but later used as a telecommunications tower.

One road that could do with being a bit wider is Harrington Sound Road, where Mr. Simons says sidewalks are needed to improve safety for schoolchildren and seniors.

"They are reluctant to go out for a breath of fresh air or walk along the Sound because they feel at risk because of the traffic," he said.

Some elderly people also complain they are confined to their homes by the lack of buses after 6.30 p.m.

Other issues mentioned by residents included the Pine Ridge Lane road sign which was knocked down by a truck five months ago and has still not been replaced.