Given the likely impact of the war in the Middle East on food imports, naturopathic doctor Debra Williams is urging Jamaicans to adopt farming methods at home and support the nation’s farmers.
Dr Williams, who is concerned about the mass importation of “highly chemicalised” food to Jamaica, recommends that the public educate themselves in agricultural practices to ensure that their families are eating healthier.
“If you look in the supermarkets in Jamaica, 85% of what we see on the shelves is imported. But if you look at the ingredients of what is being imported in those products, it’s not even healthy for Jamaicans,” she said. “… And the fertiliser is going to be impacted coming into Jamaica. It’s going to force Jamaicans to get to a point where we have to start looking at our local produce and going back to farming without the use of those chemicals.”
Dr Williams is proposing that the government engage the people, utilising the available land to encourage farming instead of importing produce. She, however, warns that every person also has a responsibility to develop plants in their own homes.
She believes that as Jamaicans, we should be planting “our yam, our sweet potato, our Irish village plants, the quick cash crops, our callaloo, and our things that grow very fast, our pak choy.”