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'Jamaica is ripe for success' - Local scientists say temperature can put 'miracle' foods on market
published: Tuesday | October 21, 2008
Kaci [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Hamilton[/COLOR][/COLOR], Contributor
Dr Lyndon Johnson, whose agro-industrial company, Technosol Limited, extracts the essential oils from pimento and other raw Jamaican products, says, "There is just something about where Jamaica is located that has granted us a blessing." - Contributed
[COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Overseas[/COLOR][/COLOR] observers are still scratching their heads while others sniff around the hillsides of Jamaica, determined to unveil the miracle food that may have propelled Jamaican athletes to 11 medals, including six gold, at the Beijing Olympics.
Their curiosity, for the most part, centres on the 'gold' in yellow yam which has been singled out as the substance that gives Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man, a jolt.
Glitter for success
Scientist Dr Lyndon Johnson sees the glitter for success in the green leaves and bushes around his farm and pimento factory in Hodges, St Elizabeth, four kilometres from the parish capital of Black River.
"There's a growing international movement to organic products and people are willing to pay more for them," says Johnson, managing director of Technosol Limited, which squeezes oil from pimento leaves into a multimillion-dollar export business. "We have the ability to establish new products."
"There is just something about where Jamaica is located that has granted us a blessing," says Johnson, who has a PhD in natural products chemistry from the [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]University[/COLOR][/COLOR] of the West Indies. It's in the pungency of the ginger and thyme, the flavour of the cocoa beans, bitter wood, coffee, bissy (kola nut) and scallion, he says. Even the marijuana grown locally is hotly favoured as the grade to get.
"Jamaica has consistently produced the best products in certain categories worldwide, and this is for a number of reasons - our latitude and longitude, the mix of rainfall, sunshine, wind patterns, etc, and the undulating terrain of the country, wherein you have these micro-climatic niches, so from the coast to the mountains you have various zones in which a variety of crops will thrive."
Jamaica is located at latitude 18 15 N and longitude 77 30 W, which makes it a tropical island.
However, these coordinates do more than just provide great [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]weather[/COLOR][/COLOR] year round, they provide the perfect weather - ample rainfall and sunlight - for [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]farming[/COLOR][/COLOR]. As a tropical island, Jamaica gets the same weather that feeds a majority of the world's rainforests, home to half the living animal and plant species on the planet and which are considered the world's largest "(natural) pharmacy". This perfect weather, coupled with fertile - primarily limestone-based - soil, as well as a pretty cool fact about its geological evolution, means the island is able to produce superior crops year after year.
Share your opinions on Jamaica's potential for greater exploitation of its agricultural wealth at editor@gleanerjm.com.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/glean...business1.html
published: Tuesday | October 21, 2008
Kaci [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Hamilton[/COLOR][/COLOR], Contributor
Dr Lyndon Johnson, whose agro-industrial company, Technosol Limited, extracts the essential oils from pimento and other raw Jamaican products, says, "There is just something about where Jamaica is located that has granted us a blessing." - Contributed
[COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]Overseas[/COLOR][/COLOR] observers are still scratching their heads while others sniff around the hillsides of Jamaica, determined to unveil the miracle food that may have propelled Jamaican athletes to 11 medals, including six gold, at the Beijing Olympics.
Their curiosity, for the most part, centres on the 'gold' in yellow yam which has been singled out as the substance that gives Usain Bolt, the world's fastest man, a jolt.
Glitter for success
Scientist Dr Lyndon Johnson sees the glitter for success in the green leaves and bushes around his farm and pimento factory in Hodges, St Elizabeth, four kilometres from the parish capital of Black River.
"There's a growing international movement to organic products and people are willing to pay more for them," says Johnson, managing director of Technosol Limited, which squeezes oil from pimento leaves into a multimillion-dollar export business. "We have the ability to establish new products."
"There is just something about where Jamaica is located that has granted us a blessing," says Johnson, who has a PhD in natural products chemistry from the [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]University[/COLOR][/COLOR] of the West Indies. It's in the pungency of the ginger and thyme, the flavour of the cocoa beans, bitter wood, coffee, bissy (kola nut) and scallion, he says. Even the marijuana grown locally is hotly favoured as the grade to get.
"Jamaica has consistently produced the best products in certain categories worldwide, and this is for a number of reasons - our latitude and longitude, the mix of rainfall, sunshine, wind patterns, etc, and the undulating terrain of the country, wherein you have these micro-climatic niches, so from the coast to the mountains you have various zones in which a variety of crops will thrive."
Jamaica is located at latitude 18 15 N and longitude 77 30 W, which makes it a tropical island.
However, these coordinates do more than just provide great [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]weather[/COLOR][/COLOR] year round, they provide the perfect weather - ample rainfall and sunlight - for [COLOR=orange! important][COLOR=orange! important]farming[/COLOR][/COLOR]. As a tropical island, Jamaica gets the same weather that feeds a majority of the world's rainforests, home to half the living animal and plant species on the planet and which are considered the world's largest "(natural) pharmacy". This perfect weather, coupled with fertile - primarily limestone-based - soil, as well as a pretty cool fact about its geological evolution, means the island is able to produce superior crops year after year.
Share your opinions on Jamaica's potential for greater exploitation of its agricultural wealth at editor@gleanerjm.com.
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/glean...business1.html