One of the consequences of the strikes in France is the disruption of supplies to French antilles supermarkets, including those on Saint Martin.
This is probably also the case for other Caribbean territories.
The information note posted on the empty shelves seemed surreal to me: supply disruption due to a dockers strike in Marseille. (and bad weather).
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…This is an opportunity for us to question ourselves about our over-reliance on containers coming from outside and from so far away in order to ensure the most basic needs of mankind: to drink water, to eat food and to cover oneself. At a time when questions are being asked about the degree of autonomy that our territory should enjoy, at a time when « nationalists » are asking the (legitimate) question of political independence, at a time when globalized financial forces are gaining more and more power, we owe it to ourselves to anticipate our « lesser dependence » on these factors that are completely beyond our control. This is all the more important that we are only a small island, with little natural resources that can be exploited on a large scale.
But it is certainly useful and possible to better cover our needs for water and food.

As far as food is concerned, « Miss Yvonne » Richardson (1907… -) tells in an interview with a local newspaper:

...The people of Saint-Martin were mostly agriculturists. We bought flour and rice from St-Kitts. Almost every family had a lil’ garden, a cow and some sheep. We drank the milk from our cattle and made « banaclower » and cheeze. We also made butter from the cream. My father employed a man who took care of the cattle and the garden. We had all kinds of vegetable and fruit. Carots, tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, celeri, onion, sweet potatoe, yam, bananas, mangoes, guavas… There was no butcher but in every village, on saturday, someone would kill a sheep or a goat, sometimes a pig, and we would buy some meat. If a big pig was butchered the meat would be salted to preserve it for some time. There were two salt ponds on the island…

… and the elders of Colombier still remember the merchants who went to Philipsburg or Marigot to sell their « provisions »…
… and I myself remember the fresh milk produced by Elie Fleming on his « Lottery Farm » property,                                                                                                                                                  … and everyone can still see the quality of the cattle in Rex Allen’s savannah (may he RIP)
… and the elders still remember that the oxen exported to Guadeloupe had to swim in the Bay of Marigot to be taken on board the sailing ships Marie-Stella or Ipana, later the Radar which was motorized… and all this less than a hundred years ago…
It seems to me therefore possible to develop and organize agricultural production chains (to the size of the territory) which will be included in the commercial circuits with a « local product of organic quality » branding, since Chlordecone and other chemicals dangerous to health have not been used on the soils of Sint Maarten… thus helping our  good reputation of « gastronomic capital » of the Caribbean which can assert the freshness and superior quality of the products. Also of help would be that people practice again growing some fruit and vegetable for family use in their own lil’ garden

The issue of water is of capital importance, both for agriculture and for human consumption. There are no rivers but there were a few springs and there were many wells, dug by human hands. There are still a few in operation, the best known of which is the « public well » in front of the Louis-Vanterpool stadium. It is these wells that allowed the practice of an important food crop for several centuries. It was at these wells that farm animals were made to drink. Some owners dug small ponds that kept water for several months depending on the season.
More recently, wells have been drilled with specialized equipment.
It has long been known that an important amount of water exist underground in several places on the island, particularly in the Spring-Concordia area. The « Public well », the well located in the courtyard of the former gendarmerie of Marigot and the one located at the entrance of Friars Bay, are there to testify to this. A few enterprising people made no mistake and began to exploit the water that sleeps in the underground of the land they own… Then came the « bromates crisis » in the running water… It has been formally forbidden to consume that water.
At the same time, as if by chance, all local sellers of « bottled water from their properties » were forbidden to market their product, for administrative reasons… thus favouring the importers of bottled water.
And it is true that the regulations that allow these closures exist.
Title VI
THE « PUBLIC WATER REGIME
« Single Chapter
« Art. L. 5361-1-Subject to the rights duly acquired by the users and riparian owners on 6 April 1948 and validated before 6 April 1953:
« 1° Springs and, by way of derogation from Article 552 of the Civil Code, groundwater are part of the public domain of the State;
Even stranger…
 The mining code.
 In France, an owner owns a piece of land and its subsoil, except in the case, provided for by the Mining Code in 1810, where mining or petroleum resources are found in this subsoil, in which case they belong to the French State and no longer to the owner of the land. « The ministerial authorization is in the form of a mining title: concession, operating permit (nowadays disappeared, except in the overseas territories).

Because, in France…
Article 552
Ownership of the soil carries with it ownership of the top and bottom.
The owner may plant and build any plantings and constructions above it that he deems appropriate, with the exceptions set out under the heading « Servitudes or land services ».
He may make below all constructions and excavations that he deems appropriate, and derive from these excavations all the products that they may provide, except for the modifications resulting from the laws and regulations relating to mines, and from the laws and regulations of the police.

In other words, it seems as if the water in the subsoil belongs to the owner of the land in France, but in the French overseas territories, it belongs to the State.
It is therefore appropriate to transfer this domain from the State to the COM, in the same spirit that Domain land was transferred… it seems to me.

It’s high time we improved our organic law, on this issue and on some others.

Interdependence will always remain an inescapable reality, but we can only dream of a certain level of independence if we can achieve a greater « less dependence » on food and water… because we must start somewhere.