Several speaking engagements lined up for the tour

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries’ ‘Grow Smart, Eat Smart’ campaign is headed to the Jamaican Diaspora community in New York City for a three-day tour from November 11-13.

The campaign, launched earlier this year by Pearnel Charles Jr, Jamaica’s minister of agriculture and fisheries, is aimed at “driving resilience, advancing sustainability and improving efficiency in Jamaican agriculture”.

Under the theme ‘Food Security-The Jamaican Perspective’, the tour is hosted by The Agriculturalist newspaper, in association with JAMPRO, the Consulate General of Jamaica-NY, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and Farm Up Jamaica.

Charles will be the special guest on the tour, which aims to promote investment opportunities in Jamaican agriculture, and is expected to provide an opportunity for the minister to meet with food importers, processors and consumers.

He will address several priority areas in Jamaican agriculture, such as crop, livestock production, climate-smart practices and technologies.

Patrick Maitland, chairman of the organising committee and publisher of The Agriculturalist, said that “knowledge transfer, investments and building capacity across industries, including farming, and the layers of the value chain of businesses and organisations, are among the issues to be tackled by the minister”.

Charles to attend several events

Charles will attend several events, including a breakfast meeting with importers of fresh Jamaican produce and a town hall meeting to update the public on his ministry’s strategies to achieve food security.

Here the minister is also slated to speak on the ‘Grow Smart, Eat Smart’ campaign.

The tour starts on November 11 with a power breakfast meeting with top importers of Jamaican produce at The Simpson Restaurant in Brooklyn, followed by a tour of Golden Krust’s manufacturing facilities in the Bronx and a town hall meeting on foods and investment opportunities in Jamaica at the Jamaican Consulate in Manhattan.

Fundraising gala to support youth empowerment initiatives to stop gun violence

The following day he will tour the Caribbean Depot/Gitto Farmers Market in Brooklyn and Sam’s Caribbean Marketplace in Hempstead Turnpike, West Hempstead, LI. The tour will end on November 13, with Charles delivering the keynote address at Panash 8th Annual Fundraising Gala at Jamaica Runway Café in Queens.

Under the theme ‘We Are Stronger Together’, the fundraising gala aims to support youth empowerment initiatives to stop gun violence, and features various performances, awards and fashionable auctions.