Originally posted on the Food System Roundtable of Waterloo Region’s blog in May, 2016.
In 2013, the New York Times described Jamaica’s annual USD 1 BN food import bill as ‘budget-busting’ and a looming threat to food security[1]. Any Canadian snowbird travelling to Jamaica can see evidence of imported food on the buffet table at their all-inclusive resort. But Jamaica’s food system is much more complex, rooted in a long history of colonialism, slavery and global trade.
I visited Jamaica in February, 2016, on a pilot visit for my doctoral research at the University of Waterloo. Chatting with Kingston residents, they told me that, while they prefer to eat Jamaican-grown produce, imports are often cheaper; families on a budget can’t be expected to ‘buy local’, given the high cost of living across the island.
Despite the heavy influence of food imports, Jamaica’s local food culture is world renowned. Jamaican expats have created a powerful food diaspora in the world’s biggest cities. London’s Brixton neighbourhood immediately comes to mind. Here in Waterloo Region, we have easy access to authentic Jamaican fare at restaurants like Ellison’s Bistro and Rainbow Caribbean Cuisine.
Back on the island, I learned that the cod used in Jamaica’s signature dish, ackee and saltfish, is from Canada. But locally-sourced ackee is equally important in Jamaican cuisine. Ackee, once an import, now locally-grown, was brought over on ships carrying enslaved West Africans around 1778, and is now declared Jamaica’s national fruit. It tastes rather like cashew and, according to our lunch hosts at Rastafarian restaurant Ibo Spice, has high nutritional content for weight loss.
Rastafarian cuisine, or I-tal, epitomizes the ‘local’ side of Jamaican food culture. It’s based on the belief that food should be natural - no chemicals, fertilizers, or seasonings – and from our surroundings. Our lunch at Ibo Spice on Kingston's infamous Orange Street was made from scratch, complete with ackee cut from a backyard tree as we waited.
After a starter of hot vegetable broth with silken tofu, we were treated to a feast of local dishes – breadfruit, sweet potato and maize cooked in fresh coconut milk, and ‘chunks’ – a savoury tofu dish. This was served with blended guava juice and generous insight into I-tal food and Rastafarian culture.
Ackee and i-tal cuisine are just two examples of Jamaica’s rich and influential culinary traditions. Jerk chicken, oxtail soup, roti and patties, callaloo and festival all represent a shifting relationship between local and global, past and present, balancing cultural history with globalization.
[1] Cave, D. (2013). “As cost of importing food soars, Jamaica turns to the Earth,” The New York Times, August 4:6.