Eat Jamaican Day is celebrated by the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) on November 25 each year since 2003. The event is a legacy of past president of JAS Norman Grant, who served 12 years in the position.

The late Governor General, His Excellency, Sir Howard Cooke proclaimed November 25 as Eat Jamaican Day at King’s House. This signed proclamation is the platform that all eat Jamaican events are held islandwide each year.

The objectives of this proclamation are to encourage and promote the consumption of local foods; to foster import substitution and to reduce the large outflows of foreign exchange on food importation; to encourage healthy eating through the uses of locally grown foods vegetables, fruits and meats.

Over the 21-year history of this campaign, very little has been achieved taking into consideration the growing food import bill, which currently is at US$1.6 billion mark, declining production of root crops, banana, sugar cane, cocoa, the spices, milk and beef. The only agricultural products that showed increase are poultry and eggs.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining (MoAF&M) partnered with JAS to stage all these events including Denbigh and other agricultural shows, but in the process, MoAF&M controlled these activities and should go further to develop a strategy to link Eat Jamaican campaign to other government food festivals, like 4H Clubs Achievement events, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Day held in October each year and to persuade the private sector to adopt Eat Jamaican objectives in their events like the Jamaica Observer Food Awards held each year.

Hotels and Restaurants pay scant regard to locally produced foods even if these items are available because import licences are awarded without strictures to the detriment of local farmers.

General Consumption Tax (GCT) was removed from imported food stuff but these are sold for much higher prices than local produce and there is no equivalent structure for Jamaican farmers to export similar products to the countries from which imports come.

Most hotels and restaurants refuse to incorporate Blue Mountain coffee in their offering, although this coffee is world-renowned. Instead imported low-grade coffee is offered to the benefit of foreign farmers.

Even in the all-inclusive hotels, the rooms are stocked with local liquors (rums, brandy, gin) but the coffee is from imported origins.

Eat Jamaican campaign must address these anomalies especially since only US$0.41 is retained locally for every US$1 spent in the tourism sector. It stands to reason that the economy would be better off if more local produce is used in these operations.

When the campaign began, the push was to have an Eat Jamaican Day at least once per week for government institutions and in the homes and progressed to three days over time, but this strategy was never developed beyond the rhetoric and the one-day celebrations. Besides MoAF&M has displayed the inability to accurately measure these events, including production data, etc, and the sector doesn’t know if these events are beneficial to the farmers nor support the growth strategy of agriculture.

This celebratory event should be more ubiquitous in meal planning to ensure that government set the food agenda for the country, instead of allowing large hotel chains and powerful food distribution conglomerates to determine our diets. The current food system where these influential businesses support food imports from their countries of choice which make this country food insecure.

It’s inconceivable to know that very little effort is put into unhealthy food importation by government to protect the population from chronic diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and other diet-related maladies.

Government ministries and agencies must take responsibility for granting import permits for dangerous foods and for edibles that can be sourced locally.

Agencies like JAS, Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA), 4H Clubs and farmers-growers associations for crops and livestock must be given a seat at the table to decide on import permits to protect local farmers and prevent conflict of interest, etc.

–  Lenworth Fulton