Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods

A few weeks ago, the Nutraceuticals industry was launched in Jamaica. For me, it was bitter-sweet. More than 15 years had past since the idea was first introduced in Jamaica by a noted professor at the University of the West Indies (See http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20011122/cleisure/cleisure2.html and http://old.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20000409/cleisure/c4.html), and 12 years since the relevant research was published to support this proposal.  His findings were published in a paper titled “Nutraceuticals and Functional Foods: A New Development Opportunity for Jamaica’. In 2001, the nutraceutical/functional food world market was just under US$100 billion. It has grown exponentially since then and is projected to expand even further, up to US$205 billion by 2017. We failed to act then, but we are acting now. Unfortunately, we’ve lived up to general perception – we have not yet grasped the concept of ‘first mover advantage’. It is now harder to get into the industry, which is more regulated than it was 15 years ago.

What was even more promising at the launch, was the number of young people who expressed interest in food production. Of note, are three young men from Mandeville who introduced an easy and efficient way for us posh farmers to grow what we eat. (I also met I met Javin Williams, another young man who is using our locally grown items to produce hair products – Herboo Enterprise).

The young men were quite impressive with what they refer to as JarGro. David Smith and Craig Campbell were very careful to guard their trade secret…but the idea is very simple…consumers can become producers….just plug it in.

JarGro masterminds – Craig Campbell, David Smith and Colin Thorpe

JarGro is an electrical smart appliance- a micro farming system created to support the production of foods particularly for us urban dwellers. JarGro replicates the natural way plants grow and provides the attributes for the plant to thrive. The system is light weight and uses low-voltage (12V). It uses natural LED plant light, a built-in irrigation system (aeroponices) which uses 98% less water and 70% less fertilizer, along with various smart sensors which enables it to process and act based on the information it attains from its environment. The unique feature of JarGro is that it is built around a minimalistic concept – “sizable” but compact enough to fit in one’s kitchen. This device creates the opportunity for posh farmers to produce healthy yields in quick time while they are saving money, time and effort.

I am excited to see what happens with JarGro. You can follow them on their Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/JarGro.

Posh farmers all over should find this appliance quite useful!

The week that was…of gas, weeds and a funeral

Image from http://www.goodgarageschemeblog.com

On Wednesday I went to Mandeville to give a presentation. It went well…but on my way back on the Melrose bypass, and approximately 80 kilometres from Kingston, I realized that I was low on petrol….the fuel light on the dashboard was my clue 😮

The next town with a petrol station is Porus which is some distance away (not sure exactly how far). Anyway, I decided to proceed optimistically to this destination. I must tell you, I have a fault…I do not carry cash, unless I know I am going to need it. On going to Mandeville I used the toll road. I was very busy making my way to the toll when it occurred to me that I had no cash… and once you are on the toll road, you can’t exit without paying the toll. Fortunately, a colleague was also on route to Mandeville and some distance behind. I waited for her at the toll booth and was fortunate to get J$1,000 on loan. So back to my driving on fumes.

As I entered Porus, I was relieved that I succeeded in making the trip. I proudly drove up to the gas pump with the intention of purchasing petrol with my credit card…only to be advised that in this day and age, the petrol station did not accept cards – CASH ONLY. I checked the change from my $J1,000 loan and deducted what I would need to pay the toll back into Kingston. Coupled with the coins in the car, I calculated that I could spare J$300 for fuel. At J$142 per litre, I was being overly optimistic but I figured I could take the chance on J$300 petrol until I got to the next petrol station.

I got to the next station and again proceeded to the pump…only to be told, they do not accept cards…and there was no ATM in sight. I prayed over my car, held my head high and proceeded to subsequent petrol stations, only to be told the same thing. In desperation, I proceeded to what would be the final petrol station before entering the toll road and was again advised that they do not accept cards, and they did not have an ATM.

Thankfully, the 2 litres that I had topped up with was enough to get rid of the warning light so I proceeded to the toll road. I remembered watching a 60 Minutes programme once where they looked into what it meant when the gas warning light came on. I prayed that they were correct and drove at a steady speed of 80 km/hour even though the limit was 110 km/hr. They advised that a steady pace made for a more efficient use of fuel.

I am happy to report that I made it into Kingston on J$300 petrol and prayer, and successfully purchased petrol at a station that accepted cards. It was a nerve-wracking journey though, and there was indeed a lesson there – Always keep some cash on my person. It doesn’t have to be a lot, just enough to pay the toll, fix a punctured tire or two and buy petrol.

Weeds….and a Funeral 😦

On Saturday, I spent some time posh farming. This week it was more for therapy than anything else. My friend was to be buried on Sunday and I really wasn’t sure I could survive it. I think I’m actually still in denial since I refuse to believe he is dead. I went to the funeral hoping to see someone else’s photo on the programme. I am seeing his photo, so I didn’t look in the casket. To do so would make it too real and I am not ready for this to be real. So I focus on my posh farm.

Despite the drought the weeds keep coming. I know my watering the farm, does not allow me to only water the seedlings, I water the entire bed, which then cause the weeds to grow. What I noticed though was that the weeds were doing better than the seedlings. My Rastafarian neighbour says that I disturbed the roots of the seedlings when I transplanted them and as such they are having to reestablish themselves. Nevertheless, they are doing well. So I had to weed some of the patch. I must tell you that I had no energy to do this but I pushed and did a part of the sorrel section. It looked much better and I will need to do some more next weekend. I am happy to report that they are all surviving well but I have to make sure I water them each evening. The water from the washing machine and kitchen sink is very handy for this. In a drought, we need to recycle and re-purpose as much as possible.

The weeding process had me thinking about the word ‘weed’. I am using it a lot these days but what does it really mean? I never thought about it before, but it is both a noun and a verb. Where we refer to Marijuana as weed, do the growers weed the weed?

What I found when I went looking was quite interesting?

As a noun, dictionary.com defines it as a:

• a valueless plant growing wild, especially one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop.
• a cigarette or cigar.
• a thin, ungainly person or animal.

As a verb, it is defined as

• to remove as being undesirable, inefficient, or superfluous
• to rid (something) of undesirable or superfluous elements.

Freedictionary.com also had this definition for weed as a noun:

• A token of mourning, as a black band worn on a man’s hat or sleeve.
• The black mourning clothes of a widow.
• An article of clothing; a garment. Often used in the plural.

I was shocked however by the definition for weeding as put forward by the urban dictionary. It is plucking the hairs from your girl’s vagina, especially while high 😮.

Anyway, this blog is about posh farming…so keep farming.