There has always been good, locally raised food on Roatan. As far back as 500 years ago, Paya Indians living on the island supplied food staples to the Spanish in Trujillo on a regular basis. The same Paya Indians provided supplies to English and Dutch pirates who used the island as a base.
The well-being of islanders depended on the food they ate. Today, some of the food consumed on the islands is still locally sourced, locally raised and locally butchered. There are a still a few organic farmers on the island. Several hundred homesteads keep their own chickens, ducks and pigs. Dozens of island farmers raise cattle to keep their land free of brush. In fact, Bay Islanders have continuously kept cattle, hogs and chickens here since the 1830s, and probably longer — since the Garifuna settled here in 1797. The Bay Islands archipelago has enough fertile ground to produce plentiful crops of sweet potatoes, corn, cassava, chatas and bananas. 

The islands have plenty of grass to support cattle, pigs and goats brought in by the Spanish from Europe.
In addition to an abundance of staples on land, the Bay Islands have a steady supply of seafood caught nearby and processed in packing plants on the island. Shrimp, wild-caught in the clean waters of Honduras, is a better alternative to the farm-raised shrimp consumed in much of the U.S.
Since the middle of XX century here was a gradual increase in dependence on food imported from mainland Honduras, Belize, the United States and beyond. While in the 1950s most island families still produced their own food, today this local production accounts for less and less. Here are some island farmers that keep the farming traditions on Roatan alive.

Island Grown Solutions for Healthy, Autonomous Living

Goats Galore

The couple’s one-acre Sandy Bay homestead is in the hills overlooking the northern shore of the island. It is quite feasible to support oneself with very little land, as efficient organic farming can yield significant harvests from small plots. In fact, smart, noncommercial farmers don’t need dozens of acres to support their families. Yourgin’s ambition is to expand his farm to three acres to include a food forest that produces ample food for the goats.

The couple started their ranch with sheep in 2015. They later expanded their operations to include five milk cows and as many as 64 sheep.

The Sandy Bay farmers were focused on raising the Black belly sheep crossed with the Dorper. The sheep eat leaves and grass, but their demand for grass was not as significant as that of cattle. Sheep are picky eaters and typically refuse to eat anything other than grass, which is why their meat is considered sweeter.

The island goats on the other hand are less picky and eat many more leaves. “Goats are more like deer in this respect. […] They have limited grass digestion,” says Yourgin. If a sheep stops eating, you have 24 hours to help it, and if you lose a sheep, you lose the work and effort you put into raising it. “You lose nine months of work.”

The Levys scaled down recently and focused their efforts on hardier goats. “The winters were too hard for the sheep,” said Yourgin. The sheep’s wool would absorb water and took an entire day to dry. “It would have easily four inches of hair on their backs,” said Yourgin. The wetness would make the sheep susceptible to illness and death.

This made raising the sheep and keeping them healthy a difficult and time-consuming undertaking.

Currently Yourgin has five male goats and five females. His two goat pens are just a few meters from his house, so he can keep watch over his flock. The young mothers are kept for their milk production, which provides the farm with a steady income. He has several breeds: Saanens, a Swiss breed of domestic goat known for its milk. Yourgin also has Boer goats, a South African breed known for meat production.

Yourgin’s goats produce milk daily for up to 10 months after giving birth. After that, the female goat is given one or two months to recover before she can become pregnant again. After about 150 days of pregnancy, she gives birth to one, sometimes two kids. First-time mother goats usually have one offspring, but more experienced mothers tend to have twins and occasionally triplets.

Yourgin says that milking just one cup is not good for business. He likes his milk goats to produce at least two liters of milk per day, and some of them do. His best producer can give him almost three liters of milk in 24 hours. Yourgin’s record-producing female goat is named Blue String.

Yourgin milks his goats twice a day and sells the raw, unboiled milk to regular customers. Appreciation for raw milk, especially raw goat milk, is rising on the island. “Raw milk is very important to our gut,” said Yourgin. His clientele includes islanders, mainlanders and foreigners. He says there is a tradition in Honduras that if you feel unwell, you should drink goat’s milk. Yourgin has had clients feeling unwell who come seeking goat’s milk for their needs.

The goat’s milk is also used as an ideal alternative for mothers who don’t want to feed their children formula. Some of his customers use the goat milk to make delicious yogurt. The milk is also beneficial for cats and baby lambs abandoned by their mothers.

Yourgin treats his goats with affection and care. At least twice a week, around 3 PM, the goats go outside and play. They search for grass, leaves and plants to supplement their diet. The animals also de-stress, and their milk and meat taste better. “It’s more nutrients for us, and they are happier. I call it ‘physical therapy for the goats,’” Yourgin says about his goat roaming in the island forest. “There is vegetation that makes the milk richer.”

The goats eat vegetation consisting of grass, wild basil leaves, quiebra-piedra, and hundreds of other leaves and grasses that are vital to their health and coat color. Yourgin sometimes buys animals that are pale, and within a month, their color changes—it becomes red.

The goats instinctively know what is good for them and what keeps them healthy. They know what works for headaches and what stimulates appetite. “An animal with no appetite will die within a week,” says Yourgin.

Farmers don’t need dozens of acres.

The goats provide not only milk, but also meat. While goat meat is not widely known on the island, it is appreciated by those who have tried it before. “It is a very red meat. When you tenderize it with rosemary, it is very close to calf meat.”

Yourgin’s goal is to build up his milking herd to 10 animals. He gets his goats from Santa Bárbara, Copán — Honduras’ cold country. Transitioning sheep and goats from the cool Honduran interior to hot and humid Roatan can be a challenge. When the animals arrive on the island, some goats will eat only a little and lose strength.

Some animals have difficulty adjusting to the tropical climate of the island. To help the goats adjust, he feeds them the leaves of the fence post tree (Gliricidia sepium) for two days, which he says ‘heals all the sickness’ they might have had before.

To keep an eye on his stock, Yourgin built his two goat pen just a few meters from his wooden, two-story home. The fence is not very high for high jumping, atletic goat. “They don’t jump over the fence because they are treated with love,” says Yourgin. The goats know they have their feed 24 hours a day, so they are not interested in running away.

It is important to keep a tight feeding schedule for the goats. “If I go over 30 minutes, he will react,” says Yourgin.

If a sheep stops eating, you have 24 hours.

The alpha goat of his herd is a four-year-old Boer goat named Bear. He is quiet, purposeful in his movements, and watches the herd behind him as he climbs a slope filled with brush. Yourgin throws a few pebbles to chase Bear away from taller trees that grow on the edge of the forest. It’s better for the goats to stay in the open, and the herd will follow Bear wherever he leads them. “This is happiness, this is living: being an animal, pushing the trees, feeling your strength, making your mark,” said Yourgin. “Physical therapy, we call it.”

The two large male goats in the group challenge each other every day. While Bear is still the alpha goat, he must defend his position. In his youth learned how to fight with bigger goats.

“He knows how to fight to maintain his spot,” says Yourgin. “[Challenger] Milk face is not as friendly. He is stronger, like his grandfather.”

Yourgin is one of several goat herders on the island, and they all know each other. There are goats just east of the municipal garbage dump, and some are near Colonia Smith. “We drive hard bargains. The competition is fierce,” Yourgin says about his fellow island goat owners. “Everybody holds on to their good goat.”

Goats offer more benefits than just clearing land and providing meat and milk. Some people receive therapy by interacting with goats. Touching a goat can help reduce anxiety. “A lot of people want to touch a domesticated animal that looks like a wild animal with horns. Many are scared of them,” said Yourgin. “When they touch it, they get a release — a feeling of, ‘I did that.’”

Yourgin had two pigs that gave birth to seven piglets on his farm. He said it costs 37 Lempiras daily to feed each pig and looking after pigs is also time-consuming and risky. “If the pig has no water, it will break everything,” said Yourgin. The venture proved too labor-intensive for his small farm.

Eventually, the ranchers sold all their pigs, cows and sheep. The Levys focused on goats, which require less maintenance and are more hardy animals better suited for island life.

Bee Sanctuary

There are several beekeepers and apiaries across Roatan. Most bee-related businesses are typically run by individuals or families, but there is also one co-op.

Arguably the best bee professional on Roatan is Mr. Dave from Diamond Rock. He can catch a bee swarm, move wild bees into boxes, and harvest honey for beekeepers who are busy with other things.

There is a family apiary in Palmetto Bay – Roatan Bees, that was launched in 2019. Roatan Bee sells its honey in several places around the island. Their honey is organic, raw and unfiltered.

Further west in Corozal, a beekeepers co-op was started in 2013 with just three beehives and is going strong. In 2019, they had 70 beehives, and by 2025, they had well over 100. The co-op sells its products under the label Island Honey and also makes other honey-related products such as soaps, creams and shampoos.

Cattle King

Ronnie Wright’s Lucas looks after a vast ranch in the middle of Roatan. Ronnie’s cattle herd of 22 cows and bulls navigate the steep terrain of Brick Bay with the skill of acrobats. They descend down steep slopes of the narrow valleys to a smaller area with a trough adjacent to Roatan’s main road. Ronnie does a head count and comes up with 17. There are five cows missing, but “they stayed behind in the other valley,” says Ronnie.

The Litrico Ranch starts on the island’s southern seashore in Brick Bay and extends into the hills. The land resembles large areas of Roatan from 50 to 100 years ago, with dozens of cattle grazing on grass and resting in the shade of jobo trees. Shade is also provided by cohune palms and madreado trees.

Goats instinctively know what is good for them.

At this point the cattle herd serves the purpose of keeping the property clean. The cows are walking and pooping grass trimmers. The cattle eat grass and some bushes. “If you let them go onto a farm, they will eat the whole farm too,” says Ronnie. The Litrico ranch is large. The property has 700 cashew trees, 600 coconut trees and 43,000 plantains.

Raising cattle on the island can be a good business. The intrepid islander sells the meat to local restaurants and residents, as a 2-year-old calf can yield around 250 to 300 pounds of meat. A big bull can cost Lps. 60,000, and a cow can bring Lps. 30,000.

The price depends on the size and the breed. “The best breed is Pardo Suizo,” says Ronnie. Brown Swiss cattle have become a world brand and can be seen all over Roatan. The Holstein breed produces better milk, and the Charolais variety is known for its meat.

There are four bulls in the herd. One, a black Pardo bull, is the alpha of the group. He is more aggressive. “Come! Come! Come!” shouts Ronnie to the cattle. “If you don’t mess with them, they become wild,” says Ronnie, who comes and checks on them every week or two. “I call them, and they come.”

When Ronnie doesn’t show up for his visit for a few weeks, it shows. The cattle become less responsive to his call and whistle. They are not feral, but they are stubborn. The alpha bull of the herd was born on another ranch and knows Ronnie less well.

The dominant bull scrapes its rear hoof and lowers its head as it stands ground in front of his heard. Ronnie calmly picks up a branch, raises his hand and swings at the bull. The Alfa bull makes a ballet like pirouette move pivoting 180 degrees and trots away. The showdown is over. After two weeks away from the ranch, Ronnie re-establishes control of the heard.

Once a year, Ronnie injects each cow with Dectomax, an antiparasitic used for both internal and external parasites. A 700-pound bull gets 7 cc. “It’s expensive, but it is really good,” says Ronnie. The pregnant females only receive the vitamin injection.

When you are in the cattle business, you have to be your own sheriff. You can’t count on the Preventiva Police to help you. During the COVID operation, the herd numbers maxed out at 52.
The government-imposed lockdowns and desperation drove some island residents to extreme measures. In an effort to get food, several men came from Los Fuertes to the Litrico Ranch and stole two of its cows. “Three of them had guns, and they shot at us, and we shot back,” remembers Ronnie. “From then on, we did not have any more problems. We ran them out, and they didn’t come back.”

The ranch also has deer and agoutis and the large property attracts hunters. “We don’t hunt them, and people who want to hunt them, we run off.”

The Litrico Ranch has been supporting island families for many generations. According to Ronnie the land’s documents date back to Queen Elizabeth. Ronnie is family with the Litricos and for 19 years has been in charge of the Brick Bay ranch. “I used to do carpentry work, but I gave that up. I like farming and dealing with cattle,” he is in charge of the property.