Agriculture and Comedy come together in a big way

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Agriculture and Comedy come together in a big way

Kingston, Jamaica: Preparations are in high gear for the staging of the ‘Eat Jamaican’ Road Shows in Trelawny and Hanover on Saturday, May 14. The shows to be held in Lucea from 10am to 12noon and at Falmouth Square from 3pm to 5pm are geared at reinforcing the campaign theme of “Grow what we eat, eat what we grow.” Following the campaign launch at historic Coronation Market on March 1 successful road shows have been held in Mandeville, Ocho Rios, Port Antonio and May Pen.

The national "Eat Jamaican" campaign aims at increasing local production and encouraging consumers to make healthy choices by eating local produce, fruits and vegetables.

Jamaica’s famous comedy duo “Ity and Fancy Cat” have been thrilling audiences with their witty routine and humorous endorsement of eating Jamaican. Meanwhile campaign mascot Doctor Bird has been dishing out nutritional facts and whipping up excitement of her own.

Visitors to the shows will enjoy displays and samples by Jamaica Broilers, Trade Winds, GraceKennedy and Wisynco as well as giveaways from National Bakery and Island Grill.  

Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) representatives will also be on hand to encourage Jamaicans to ‘Plant Up Yuh Backyard’, and will be distributing brochures with helpful tips for backyard gardening.

The Eat Jamaican campaign has also been supporting the farmers’ markets throughout Jamaica and ‘Doctor Bird’ has been explaining the high nutritional content of such items as callaloo, which has four times the calcium of broccoli and our ground provisions which are high in fibre, vitamins and minerals.  Since the start of the campaign, there has been an increase in sales at Farmers Markets with last week’s totalling over $17 million.

Six of Jamaica’s top Olympians have endorsed the campaign.  They are Melaine Walker, Brigitte Foster-Hylton, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Asafa Powell, Nesta Carter and Michael Frater.  

 
Contact:

Cecil Thoms

Director, Communication & Public Relations

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries

T- 927-1872; E – cethoms@moa.gov.jm

Akhter Hamid

Project Manager

Tel: +1 876 978 2352

Mob: +1 876 322 7284

Email: akhter.hamid@fao.org

Staci Smith & Cleo Walker
PROComm
T 876-926-6740 | M 876-455-1166

M 876-375-9438