Dear Editor,

Thank you for the good news item, “Domestic food production grows despite drought”, in the Observer of April 29. As a Jamaican living in the diaspora I read your paper every day and sometimes browse the other media outlets from Jamaica, my homeland. Most headlines are usually about crimes, quarrels and other negative developments. It was like a breath of fresh air for me to read your report from the Ministry of Agriculture saying that despite the drought and other setbacks, our country was able to increase its tonnage of food production by 3.9 per cent.

That news meant a lot to me not only because I grew up in the country where my father planted a decent “grung”, but also because I believe that Jamaica has the capacity to produce all the food that its 2.6 million residents need to live comfortably, plus much more for export to the rest of the Caribbean and elsewhere. For business or pleasure I am sometimes in Birmingham or London, England, and Jamaicans there love to shop for yellow yam, dasheen, coco, breadfruit, banana, and practically every Jamaican food you can think of. When I go to Toronto, Canada or to Florida, New York, or practically any US state, the story is the same. Jamaicans want food from the homeland, and so Jamaican groceries and restaurants do excellent business in the diaspora. If I had not seen it with my own eyes I would not believe that foreigners of Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, African and every ethnicity under the sun fall in love with ackee and saltfish, cow foot, “mannish water,” escoveitch fish, and all the Jamaican foods that I grew up eating.

Congratulations to Minister of Agriculture Dr Christopher Tufton on doing such a fine job since he took office. I encourage him to do what it takes to get the other 11 parishes, next quarter, to join Manchester, St Elizabeth and Trelawny in increasing food production, even the urban Kingston and St Andrew area. Mr Editor, can you start a “Good news from Jamaica” column that we in the diaspora can quickly turn to in your paper before we look at the bad news? Keep up the good work, Observer.

Delroy Sylvester

Murfreesboro, Tennessee

USA