V.I. Agriculture’s Innovative Future – Virtual Farmers Market

Meet Sommer Sibilly-Brown. She shares her new project on creating a Virtual Farmers Market for the local Farmers. A local teacher finds a way to develop the farming industry on St. Croix from her passion for food.

The inception of this noble endeavor all began while Sommer was working at the Ricardo Richards elementary school. She was put in charge of a school project for entering a booth at the local agricultural fair. Funny enough it was not something she was even remotely interested in doing at the time and she resisted her principal’s request to manage the project.

Below: Locally grown produce.

The project’s theme of “How to get children involved in agriculture” encouraged her students to discover the Farm to School Network, which at the time, catered only to the US states nationwide and did not include the US Virgin Islands. Sommer fell in love with her student’s enthusiasm and drive to do something special so much that she began advocating for the US Virgin Island to be included as part of the network.

January 21, 2021

An interview with Sommer Sibilly-Brown about the future of VI agriculture development.

Tropics Hydroponic Farms lettuce for Farm to School

The experience she gained from that project sparked Sommer’s passion for food and inspired her to eventually pursue her advocacy efforts on a full-time basis. All of her hard work and persistence helped encourage the forming of the Virgin Islands Good Food organization.

Sommer envisions the Virgin Islands as the leader in “Ag-Tech” and innovation in the agriculture industry. “The opportunity to test anything at scale” coupled with the creation of agri-technology is what Sommers describes as distinct advantages that are currently attracting international entities to the US Virgin Islands to learn and participate in the further development of agriculture worldwide.

https://m.facebook.com/VIGoodFood/

www.goodfoodvi.org