April 13, 2013

Dear Sir,

Let’s get ready to rumble! That’s what’s come out of all this, Ministry of Environmental Protection causing grief to Tom Wadson and the Bermuda Farmers’ Association over agricultural plants and making it harder on them.

Thing is though, The Agricultural Exhibition, will simply be called The Animalistic Exhibition instead (if people want to see plants then go to Tom Wadson but if not, go to the animal exhibition instead). So much for the name Agricultural being used anymore though, a spokeswoman claims: “Mr Wadson had failed to advise the public of a number of important facts. In particular, he didn’t acknowledge that the request to intercept imported seeds was based on information that seeds had been treated with pesticides that could be harmful to agriculture in Bermuda. He failed to acknowledge that the Bermuda Farmers Association, including himself, had met with the Minister of the Environment (namely Sylvan Richards) on March 27, 2013 to discuss the very issue and other concerns of the Association.

“Mr Wadson failed to mention that as a result of that meeting, Government agreed to rescind that letter until further consultation had taken place on that matter. The Association and the Minister discussed a number of other issues and had agreed a plan to address those issues.” Mr Wadson however claims the letter wasn’t rescinded and as far as he was aware, imported seeds were still being intercepted. Who’s telling the truth? We may never know until the end of The 1st Animalistic Exhibition (since there will be no Agricultural this time to call it 75th Agricultural Exhibition). Nevertheless, planning something that should’ve been thought of since January is obviously what you call unplanned.

FOR NEITHER PARTY

Devonshire