Carry On Friends: The Caribbean American Experience
Carry On Friends has an unmistakable Caribbean-American essence. Hosted by the dynamic and engaging Kerry-Ann Reid-Brown, the podcast takes listeners on a global journey, deeply rooted in Caribbean culture. It serves as a melting pot of inspiring stories, light-hearted anecdotes, and stimulating perspectives that provoke thought and initiate conversations.
The podcast invites guests who enrich the narrative with their unique experiences and insights into Caribbean culture and identity. With an array of topics covered - from lifestyle and wellness to travel, entertainment, career, and entrepreneurship - it encapsulates the diverse facets of the Caribbean American experience. Catering to an international audience, Carry On Friends effectively bridges cultural gaps, uniting listeners under a shared love and appreciation for Caribbean culture.
Carry On Friends: The Caribbean American Experience
Mission Food Possible: A Movement to End Food Insecurity in Jamaica & the Caribbean
In this riveting conversation, food security activist Peter Ivey reveals that approximately two-thirds of Jamaica's population experiences food insecurity despite the island's abundant natural resources. As founder of Mission Food Possible and CEO of The Reggae Chefs, Peter is fighting to reconnect communities with their culinary heritage and build resilient local food systems.
"I didn't choose food security," Peter explains, "it chose me when I realized I probably was food insecure my whole life growing up in Jamaica." His organization identifies the most valuable local produce in different parishes, then trains school canteen workers, parents, and community leaders to create nutritious, affordable meals using these ingredients. The impact? Over 60,000 people, mostly children, now have improved diets and communities are regaining lost culinary skills.
Peter's mission reminds us that food security isn't just about having enough to eat – it's about maintaining the cultural knowledge, skills, and connections that allow communities to thrive independently.
Links & Resources:
- Mission Food Possible: missionfoodpossible.com
- Follow Peter on Instagram: @peteriveyofficial
- Email: info@missionfoodpossible.com
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- Donate: If you believe in our mission and want to help amplify Caribbean voices, consider making a donation.
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A Breadfruit Media Production
Hello everybody, Welcome back to another episode of Carry On Friends the Caribbean American Experience, and my guest this episode is none other than Peter Ivey. Peter, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm carrying on. Thank you for having me, glad to be here.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you're here because in the pre-chat we get a window where you're going to bring. So I'm excited for the community to hear. But before we get there, tell the community a little bit about yourself. I already know where you come from because we already speak the language, but tell them a little bit about you. Know where you're from, the work you do.
Speaker 2:All right, carrying on is a task. That's the way I'm going to try. Born and raised Jamaican, come from Spanish town, attended Jamaica College. Migrated from Jamaica, living in New York for a while, I'm known as an entrepreneur serial entrepreneur, if you will. I'm also a food security activist. I'm the founder of Mission Food Possible and the founder and CEO of the Reggae Chefs and P3 Culinary Kit. P3 Culinary Kit is the world's first culinary supplies and uniforms founded for socially responsible chefs. Right, I'm also an author. I published two children's books. The last children's book, dashin Island, was selected by the government of Jamaica to be distributed to primary school-aged children. All right, I'm also a speaker. I spend time speaking on various platforms around the world on food activism and entrepreneurship and anywhere I can fit in.
Speaker 1:Basically, Wonderful, so let's start at the beginning. What does it mean to be a food security activist?
Speaker 2:Great question. I believe that there's a disparity between where healthy food, affordable food, safe food, nutritious food is distributed, and I decided to do something about it. Right and so, literally as the word says, I activate my own resources to ensure that we can balance the scale a little bit. I also agitate the powers that be to ensure that we can get policies changed. We can raise awareness around these issues. Hunger and food security is the number two problem in the world, as per the United Nations. Right and so, when we talk about an issue so big and we look at Jamaica being one of the top countries in the Caribbean, two-thirds of Jamaican population is food insecure right, and so somebody have to say something about it, somebody have to do something about it, somebody have to make sure that the people are not aware that this is a crisis. They know that this is a crisis, and so I agitate and educate and raise awareness.
Speaker 1:All right, we're going to go back even more to the basic. What does it mean or what does it look like to be food insecure?
Speaker 2:Another great question, Kerri. It's a rule, man.
Speaker 1:That's bringing it, we bring it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I like to tell people that you know I didn't choose food security. You know it kind of chose me because when I got enlightened I realized that I probably was food insecure my whole entire life, growing up in Spanish Town, jamaica, passing for GSC, and then my mother had to struggle for fine school fee and then sometime we didn't even have the lunch money and everything For me. Food security can even be deadlier for the population than straight out hunger and starvation, because that you can see. Food insecurity you can't see right.
Speaker 2:And so imagine children first of all going to school hungry without breakfast, right. Having to skip meals or skip school because their parents can't afford food to eat. Imagine people who are malnourished because they're only eating canned food daily because it's the only thing they can afford and so they are lacking the vital nutrients that they need. Right. Imagine the stress of working people who can only afford to pay rent but can't afford the supermarket run. Right. Imagine households that cannot survive on one paycheck if only one paycheck coming in and so people have to kind of divvy up who gets to go to school today, who get to have lunch today, what are we having for dinner today? Right, that's what food security look like. Food security also is evident in our hospitals when you look at our diabetes rate, when you look at our hypertension rate, when you look at all of those diseases caused by not eating proper food, not having access to healthy food, not eating enough food right. So many of our children are being diagnosed with issues that could be solved by breakfast.
Speaker 1:That's what it looked like. You're saying so many things. The questions keep coming because you say healthy food we're in America. You know, like everybody, definition of a healthy food is a moving target every time. You know. You know things that we grew up, you know. You know, pick the latest trend, jackfruit. We grew up with Walipa jackfruit. So, like, who really defines what's healthy food anymore? Because it feels like what's defined as healthy food is based on the latest trend and so for people who don't have the means, as you describe it, food security you know what does that look like for them? And it could look like people like me because, as you're saying, mr Well, I don't know. So that's why I'm like this is beyond enlightening at this point. So just let's define what's healthy and nutritious. You know, beyond trends, fad and you know, let's be real you know interest in driving a particular product in the marketplace for consumption.
Speaker 2:Wonderful question. I think it's a great time to highlight that our work, mission Food Possible. Most of our work takes place in the Caribbean. Most of our work takes place in Jamaica, caribbean. Most of our work takes place in Jamaica. I spend time speaking in America and doing workshops in America.
Speaker 2:But the reason why I mentioned that distinction is because food access looks very different where you are located, piece, but it's great to touch on that. We know what a balanced meal looks like for every age group, right? We know what nutrients we're supposed to be receiving and where those nutrients should be coming from. Now, when you live in a place like America, you are literally bound to the commercials or what's being advertised or what's being promoted in the supermarket, and that may or may not be exactly what's good for us. And we know a little bit controversial here, kerian, we know that a lot of the food that is being driven in a place like America is capitalism. It's money driven, it's not focused on health, right. But let's shift to Jamaica and I love the Caribbean because a lot of our people have a lot of autonomy about what they eat. But they lot of autonomy about what they eat, but they just don't know what to eat. We've been not only misled but bombarded with the big food companies with canned food.
Speaker 1:Sometimes the same food that they sell in the can growing in your backyard. Listen, all of a sudden you know there was a product I'm not going to say you know that I see they sell it in Canada. And I said, but I remember, going to the back of the yard I picked the gungo peas finger black up, avoid the worm. You know all of that. And now it's in a can, you know. Or even the mint, like the mint bush grow wild at the side of the house. I forgot to pick it and boil it.
Speaker 1:Every morning over now a teabag, and those are the things that I miss growing up. Trust me, Peter, like every morning before I'm planting my egg, we're going to get my mint tea before I go to school. And, as I say, the gungo peas memory and the black finger, when you pick the gungo peas, like those were things that I I grew up the breadfruit, the aki, whatever on the tree to to see what I, when I go back to Jamaica, sometimes it feels like it's so I don't want to say Americanized, but that's the word Miguel used right now versus what I remember growing up and experiencing life in the Caribbean, so that's really resonating with me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and you just said something important. I don't want to lose my previous thought, though In many ways, for our people to become Americanized is to be on the path to food insecurity. Let me say it again, kerian In many ways, for our people to become Americanized in the way we eat, we're putting ourselves on a path to be food insecure, and I'll get to that right after. And so we talk about proportion. You just mentioned planting your carbs, you mentioned eggs, your protein, and you need your veggies, and so when we talk about people having access to the food, some people have an access, especially people in rural areas, but don't know what to eat, and so it's easy to pick a mango and tear that mango with your teeth, and then you eat six mango on your belly full and you got your bed. What I'm finding now is that people actually don't want to peel yam no more. People don't want to peel banana no more. It's too much work. You give me a look of confusion, but the generation is looking at these foods as difficult food.
Speaker 1:You know what. The other day I was talking to somebody and you know, sometimes when you peel the banana, you know you split it, you put it in a pot and boil and open it. But then someone was I was putting banana in soup, because sometimes me like banana in soup and they say how you peel the banana. Me say, well, you know, no, hold on, used to teach you for peeling banana. You hold it down in other water and that's how you peel it so it make it easier for come off.
Speaker 1:Yes, your finger might still, might still black up, but it's part of the experience and I realized that things that I knew growing up and I was telling my mom I said the one thing I wish I knew was to identify when a breadfruit turn and and I already ferocious versus the one way I can put in a soup. That's the only thing that I don't remember having the skill for. But knowing that skill is lost with the elders because it is a skill for know which breadfruit is which and you know what's ready for a type of, the type of cooking it desires, whether you want to roast it or whether you want to peel it and cook it in a you know one pot with dumpling and banana, or put it in a soup, so miss it?
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely. So everything we are saying and you're touching on so many different aspects of Mission Food Possible? First, you touched on this political aspect. What role does policy play in food security? What you just touched on is customs and culture. Now, our elders, who had that knowledge that you just spoke? The knowledge can't tell when a breadfruit is in its various stages of consumption. If we're losing that knowledge, our people is losing something vital to our nutrition and our cultural identity. Cultural identity isn't strictly linked to culinary identity. So all of those things are part of food security.
Speaker 1:Man. I love it because a huge part of what I talk about the show is about preservation and our cultural identity. Like you know, like I was telling somebody the other day that I don't have a rice cooker and I said I don't want to lose this skill on about knowing how to cook rice, literally just put the rice in the pot, no much water and watching the pot and I get it. A rice cooker is convenient, but there's a fundamental skill that you lose by not knowing how to cook rice, the way, how we grew up. Knowing how to cook the rice absolutely I'm with you, peter.
Speaker 2:I'm with you, I like it you just touch on another pillar without even knowing it. So we didn't even get into mission food possible yet, but you're just on another pillar without even knowing it. See, we didn't even get into Mission Food Possible yet, but you're just touching another pillar. You're just moving through the pillars. We have three pillars right Empower, educate and sustain. Mission Food Possible is rooted in exactly what you just said, that education piece.
Speaker 2:As chefs, what Mission Food Possible do is that we identify what we call MVPs. We have a tool that we use to identify what are the most important crops and foods to our community. Once you've identified them, we call them the MVPs. We bring chefs into that community and train food leaders. So we're talking about parents, canteen workers, anybody who's responsible for cooking food in our communities. We train them how to cook a variety of things creatively and inexpensively with their MVPs, and so we are retaining cooking skills in our community and where it's being diluted, we are reminding the people that this is how you get fresh food by picking it fresh, harvesting fresh, and if you have forgotten the skill needed, this is how you do it. So you just touch on one of the pillars.
Speaker 1:Wow, um, all right, so where we go from here? Because it's just like to me this is. It's really resonating, because sometimes people feel like I live in a you know, a yesteryear rose colored lens. But it's not. You know, I lost my grandmother so I will never hear her teaching me how to identify the breadfruit, but I do remember how. For me, coconut drops full of sugar, yes, but I know how to make it like. I can visually see her making it Like.
Speaker 1:You know, I was telling my brother who was teaching his wife how to make the rum cake and I said you know why they soak the rum, the raisins? Because, you know, in Jamaica we have, you know, jump pan. You know our guests run out so they had to soak it. You know, now you can do now with, maybe, access and modern technology and what things that we can retain in the process. So in all of the things that you are doing, all your pillars, you know you've identified that. You know the how-to is missing the education. Now, you and I I don't know about you, but I went to an all-girls school in Moby and up until ninth grade, I know I had one session of food and nutrition class every week and we had to learn about enzymes, this and that. So you and I know not everybody fortunate to have that kind of structured learning about lipids, all of these things and what have you. So how do people then identify a balanced meal? You know, because some people may not know what's a balanced meal.
Speaker 2:So that resource is online. For those who have access to it, it's the easiest information to have access to. And so I'm a realistic person, Karen. Right, For those who have access to it, it's the easiest information to have access to. And so I'm a realistic person, Karen. Right. For those who have the opportunity to have that information being right in their face, provide it to them. That's fine. You know, I went to a school that also broke that down to me early. And then you have another set of people who, when I just said, it's as easy as typing into Google what is a balanced meal. You have people who can do that. That's accessible For the majority of the others.
Speaker 2:Food leaders, policymakers, have a responsibility at every educational level to bring in that chart to show the nutrition wheel that you learn when you're a child. Right, what you find is that people assume in their respective areas that this is not important information, right? Some teaching colleges who are preparing teachers don't talk about nutrition at all. Right, you have medical doctors. I just saw this on the news the other day that what's his name, the man who Trump appointed to be health person is now going to mandate that doctors know nutrition, Because doctors don't know nutrition Right and so the information is available. So that question that you asked me as who I am, I tell people it's readily available. We understand those who learn it early. We understand those who, as soon as I say Google, is just going to type in nutrition wheel and it comes up. But we have a responsibility to those who won't do any of that. Policymakers, rules and regulations have to change to make that information available to them.
Speaker 1:All right. So in the work you're doing with Mission, Food Possible. What has been the progress since you've been doing this work? How have you seen progress and changes being made in the Caribbean Great?
Speaker 2:question Mission Food Possible started our work eight years ago. Right In our second year, we shifted our goal to train food leaders in various communities across the island. And so, again, what it looks like is we have a marquee project. Every year we identify the MVPs most valuable produce in a particular parish. We go to a different parish every year by the way, this year we're scheduled to be in St Elizabeth. We identify a community in a different parish. We identify a number of schools basic schools, primary schools and last year we did our first high school. So we're talking about roughly 68 schools, a mixture of basic school, primary schools and high schools and we are focused on training the canteen staff of those schools. That's our main focus. Once we have all the canteen staff of those schools that's our main focus Once we have all the canteen staff registered for that workshop, we then turn to the community and we invite parents, we invite grandparents, food leaders, we invite teachers into the workshop, right?
Speaker 2:Why do we focus on children? Because the perspective that we're trying we're trying to shift perspective of the Jamaican people on what healthy food is, what does it mean to see and think about food differently? Right, and so we know that we have an opportunity with the younger people to once they see something different, taste something different, experience something different that might change them life completely. Right, and so over the past eight years we've been to seven parishes. Right, we've trained almost 25 schools and we've directly impacted the diets of almost 60,000 people, mostly children and food leaders of the community.
Speaker 2:So once we leave that school, our canteen workers are empowered to not just cook with the basic things that they're used to, like the white rice and the fried chicken and the curry chicken. Every day they are now thinking outside the box in preparing various meals with breadfruit and ackee and callalalu and potatoes and carrot and cassava. These are all things that they are now incorporating in cooking creatively. Once Mission Food Possible. Leave their kitchen. We have children who are showing improvement in attendance, children who are showing improvement in learning in attendance, children who are shown improvement in learning right, and then that reverberate into the communities the same people who we train to cook that way in the school. Guess what happens? They're going home to their families and cooking the same exact way.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know I wanted to like double-clicking to something, so you went to every parish. So, growing up, my mother's father he's from St Mary and I remember the first time I got to St Mary. I never eat so much banana products in my life. I eat everything banana right, which is fine, but it's something that we learned as a kid. We know how to make banana fritters because we went to St Mary because banana walk. Now, going back to your definition of food security, is it like take, for instance, st Mary, the product of the banana. Is it about learning all the different ways you can use banana to make a food, or is it diversifying banana with other things? But does that try to make it really practical and easy to understand where you're going?
Speaker 2:Love it. We haven't been to St Mary's, so it's a great example. After that, we know that, and when we say MVPs, you'll often find that once we've identified what are the most important foods to a region or a community, you'll find that some of those foods are foods that we all grew up knowing that this is abundant in this particular place. So, absolutely, banana is an MVP of St Mary. Jamaica is a disaster-prone place. We also occasionally have political uprisings. We have floods that might block roadways, hurricane that will block roadways and tear down crops and ruined harvests. Right, we have various things that can affect food supply. But even on a regular, regular thing, with no, with nothing impacting food supply, knowing that banana is important to St Mary's is very, very, very important. Some people might not know this right, and so the first level did you know that banana is important to St Mary? Why is this important? If something ever happens, you know that what's abundant in St Mary is banana. Cool, that's not enough For Mission Food Possible.
Speaker 2:We bring our team of chefs in and our project look like this Once we get the food leaders in one community, it's talking about upbringing culture. What does banana really mean to us? Right, how long we know, banana is a part of our cultural identity, right? What do you know to do with banana? Okay, boil it, right, wait till it ripe and then eat it. So most people will have a limited knowledge of what to do with the banana. But what if, as chefs and we are trained to see food differently? What if we go in a community and extend the knowledge of the banana to the people? What about a banana salad? What about banana fritters? What about banana porridge? Right? So if the people culturally know two and we add six, make eight, and that starts to reverberate into the community, we've just made that community a little bit more food secure. Practically, that's what it looks like. Does that make sense more?
Speaker 1:food secure. Practically that's what it looks like. Does that make sense? It does, and last week I did an interview. I recorded an interview with a young lady, magella, and she was talking about the disaster in Grenada and her key point, which kind of ties into what you are saying, she was like you know, people send barrel down all the time and they have barrel with canned corn. She said why are we sending barrel with canned corn? Why we don't give the farmers their money for plant corn so they can stop by canned corn? And I mean she said it and it's like okay, but now you come here and with this idea of food security completely makes sense.
Speaker 1:And I think that what people think about is like oh, you know, we don't always have time to go out and get the regular corn. Canned corn is easier in its accessibility or it's in preparation. What do you say to people who are like, yeah, but the canned food is right there, I don't have time to go to a market or go supermarket to buy these things. What do you say to those people who say, well, the canned corn is easy, it's accessible and it's quick. I would say to those people who say, well, the CanCorn is easy, it's accessible and it's quick.
Speaker 2:I would say to those people are you willing to compromise your health right for convenience, which is what we're being asked to do and we're being driven to do and we're being coached into doing right? I understand one-off, I understand disaster preparedness, I understand ease sometimes, but if we're making that our norm, then we're losing vital nutrients provided by the fresh corn and absorbing sometimes sodium, extra sodium and preservatives that are in the canned corn that we now know is leading to cancer, right. So I ask people what are we willing to compromise In Mission Food? Possible workshop knife skills is a vital part of it. As chefs we're trained in knife skills.
Speaker 2:Knife skills make it easy to prep food, the most difficult foods. If you're taught a technique to prep the most difficult food, you never look at that food the same way again, right. And so you look at corn and people go show me, can't bother with the can, because all you're doing the can will fly all over the place and the can will do this. It's just easy for us to can and show it out. Once I explain the risks of regularly keyword, I mean I tell nobody nothing, do what they must do sometime. But if I teach you how to take a corn on the cob right and swipe that knife firmly but slowly down right. You'll never look at the corn the same way again. It's not too far off than taking a can open and working it around the can right, and so I would ask those people if they're willing to compromise their health, because sometimes they don't know the dangers of eating canned food regularly.
Speaker 1:All right, so we're going to step back even further. What made you, or what called you, to be a chef? What was that seed that was planted in you to choose this route?
Speaker 2:I wasn't called to be a chef in Algeria. That seed that was planted in you to choose this route. I wasn't called to be a chef in Algeria. I wasn't called to be a chef as a matter of fact. One can argue that's not my passion, right, and cooking is not my passion, right. It just so happens that what I'm passionate about involves food, right, and so I believe entrepreneurship is my calling right. It's what comes natural to me.
Speaker 2:I've been given the gift of ideas and vision. I was fortunate enough to have a vision of something that was very different from the other visions I've ever had, which is may I pour you to always a dream about money. You know, right, I want rich and every idea I want jump on, and I've created many businesses that fail, I remember. So I was, you know, profile a company. I'm coming from Jamaican TV. You remember when Faye Ellington Ian Bowen, right. So I was supposed to be a guest on Ian Bowen program when Faye Ellington took it over, I was one of her first guests, right? And so I tell Ms Ellington that I've started maybe almost 20 business and fail miserably. I've started maybe almost 20 business and feel miserably just trying to make something up myself. You know, may I get to you when I'm rich, when it finally turned for me, I guess, if you feel enough time, you start to learn. I had an idea.
Speaker 2:I went to Las Vegas. I'll give you a quick summary. I went to Las Vegas one day, so I was invited to a stage show called Reggae in the Desert, and it was my first time seeing mass consumption of my culture. I never been to a stage show before that. I never noticed that the world really loved reggae like that. And so, as I'm walking around the venue, I'm seeing people selling food, and none of them was Jamaicans. So consumption of Jamaican culture in all angles the music, the food and I didn't see any Jamaicans at the forefront being the suppliers, right.
Speaker 2:And so I had this crazy idea that how could I, as a Jamaican who know my culture, have a hand, have a say-so, in how we're disseminating our culture to the world? Right, and I sat on that. I sat on it, and then the reggae chefs emerged. What if, as some young youth, we can cook, we can go into some people's living room and cook some Jamaican food and talk to them about Jamaica and educate them about Jamaica. And what does that look like?
Speaker 2:So when the Reggae Chef started to take form, nothing like it existed. As a matter of fact, the tourist minister called the Reggae Chef one of the most innovative tourist-driven businesses ever created in the last 60 years. So what it looked like was you could go on our website or call us. Choose a chef, choose your dish, choose your entertainment, and a chef will come out to your space, your place or wherever it is that you are, and we will teach you how to cook the meal. We will answer your questions about Jamaican, we will entertain you, whether that be dance, art and craft, language lessons you name it. All right.
Speaker 2:And so that was an entrepreneurial idea, not born out of my passion for food, born out of an opportunity. I saw the Reggae chef started to do its thing and I was hiring chefs. Once we started to grow, I started to hire chefs to you know, to go out and do the thing, and they started to tease me and say, oh yeah, I am a chef. So I decided to go to culinary school to just get that out of my back school, to just get that alpha myovac Right. I went to culinary school with the eyes of an entrepreneur and I think that really helped. What happened to me? Next, most students enter culinary school passionate about food. They can't wait to cook. Right, when they see kitchen, that's all they think about. They cook food.
Speaker 2:But I went in already running a company, but being in class as. But I went in already running a company, but being in class as an entrepreneur, and two things happened at the same time. I had a professor who was excited about the culinary field, who told me that there's no better time to cook than now. There's more people cooking than ever before. And I happened to go to the United Nations and heard about the global hunger crisis. And the two things did not make sense to me. How is it that more people are cooking at the same time but yet still there's more people hungry in the world? So who the heck are we cooking for? And so I guess, because I wasn't someone who was saying I'm passionate about cooking, I can't wait to go work in a five-star restaurant.
Speaker 2:I was someone who was there learning to cook to see where else my skills could fit in. I decided to use my skills to cook for the people who matter the most, the people who don't have food to eat. And so, to answer your question. That is how I found that concept, and then I realized I stumbled on something bigger, because the same people who I'm looking at with my skills, I was one of them. I grew up like that, you know, and so I basically went with it from there, and then the ideas just kept flowing right. I thought about how I could use my culinary skills to feed the people who need it the most, and how could I do it innovatively, not what everybody else was doing. And that's when it dawned on me that, based on my travels, I had done up to that point.
Speaker 2:Most of the world eat in a very limited way Rice, beans, corn, mostly, right. Jamaica's unique in that we eat about a dozen staple foods every single day, and so the initial stages of my idea was how do I let the world know how Jamaicans eat and where else in the world are these foods that we eat, so that we can transfer the knowledge and the education? Believe it or not, there's things that we eat that grow in other places that people don't even touch. Like what? Oh, that's easy. When I started our work, I remember going to a part of Nicaragua that have okra and nobody could tell me what it was. Okay.
Speaker 1:Really, because you know listen nobody. You know cook fish without okra.
Speaker 2:That's how we. That's how we I remember on my first travels to West Africa about 15, 16 years ago, and to this day somewhat, because the Jamaicans got there to teach people. Nobody was consuming, aki. You look surprised.
Speaker 1:I am extremely surprised. Like every Jamaican, every other Jamaican yard. I mean, maybe everybody have built up their house now, but every Jamaican yard had, and every other Jamaican yard had, an ackee tree or a breadfruit tree and as a child we understood don't force the ackee open, poison us. But you know, when the ackee, ready you go, you know for peel it. Like to me it's like that is just basic Second nature. Yeah, second nature, aki, ready you go, you know for peeling.
Speaker 2:Like to me it's like that is just basic Second nature. I'll blow your mind right now. In case you don't know this, let me show you something. Aki is our national dish Cool, it's a part of our national dish. A Jamaican not knowing aki is like it's impossible. It is such a part of our culture. Jamaica is the largest exporter of Aki. It's about a $4.5 million business annually Cool. So not only we consume Aki as our national identity, but we're also major providers of Aki that leave the country Commercially right.
Speaker 2:The biggest providers have their own private orchards. An orchard with about 93 or so is a relatively large orchard Cool. Some people will have more than one right when it's harvesting time. What these ackee producers do is then they get the help of locals who have tree in their backyard and they also use that as surplus. Cool. I say that to give you context In West Africa worse back then, but still very current.
Speaker 2:I went to one school in Ghana and I counted over a hundred architrae used for shade, which means on this one school property. It was an orchard larger than our big orchards that we have for commercial use, where we make millions of dollars in export. All right, when you drive around West Africa, ghana especially right. All you see is architry Again, may I say, about 16 years ago. So we are talking about what they know now they never know. Then I'm going to bring up to speed to what is going on now.
Speaker 2:Architry litter the terrain of West Africa because Aki is West African in origin. Okay, but when you go there, the Akan name for Aki is A-K-I, so the spelling changed and the pronunciation changed, but in the Akan language it's A-C-H-I-N-G. When you ask any West African 16 years ago anybody and believe me, I tried the A-C-H-I-N-G tree is only planted for shade. No one knew anything to do with it. As a matter of fact, it was a nuisance Because when the ackee tree bear and drop on the ground and litter the ground, it was a nuisance for them. Them vex.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because we know, if you met the ackee, drop it, splatter it, mash out everything.
Speaker 2:As Jamaicans started to go to Ghana more often, you found pockets of people who've been sharing that oh, this is aki, we eat this aki, and that started to proliferate.
Speaker 2:So, to this day, native Ghanaians don't consume aki. Aki isn't a thing in Ghana, but because there are more Jamaicans, you might find a little corner where I utilize the aki and you might find a handful of Ghanaians who, because of that knowledge, is consuming it. 16 years ago this is how far I went I wondered if I could reintroduce aki to the West African landscape, but we ended up on a roadblock because you know, aki is toxic, so it's something that you have to be very, very careful if you're going to introduce a large population to it. So I'm happy that what's been happening now is still they still don't consume Aki on a large scale. But because more and more Jamaicans are going, jamaicans are recognizing that oh, shoot, we can't run out of aki yasso, because a yasso is the root and a yasso comes from, and so that's one example.
Speaker 2:There are things that we eat and vice versa, that we don't know what the other is doing. And to boast our food security, if we knew that that's what they were doing with planting, and we could add that to our knowledge base over here and then teach them another thing that we know over here Dachshund is another one. Right, you know Dachshund?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's out. Central America call it Taro, Other places call it Malaga. West Africa call it Kokoyam and we call it Do. Other places call it malaga, West Africa call it koko yam and we call it dasheen. Nobody don't know what the next one I call it. So we are in different regions consuming the same food right.
Speaker 2:The leaf is used in Kalaloo in Trinidad, the stem is curried in the Philippines right and the root is consumed by Caribbean people and West African people. So Caribbean people don't know that the stem can't eat and Philippine people don't know that the leaf can't eat. So what I'm saying is that there are exceptions to the rule, you know. I mean I want a Philippine person to listen to this and say but we didn't know that. What we are saying is that we've been to those parts and now say the public is not general knowledge that the stem can't eat in some parts of the world and it's not general knowledge that the leaf can't eat in some part of the world. As a matter of fact, we use the leaf in something called pepper pot soup. We don't use it like what Trinidad use it in their Kalalo dish, you understand. So when all of this become one knowledge by people. We bolster our food security through education.
Speaker 1:Wow, there is something else that you just said too, that kind of reminded me of the conversation with Majela. She was, you know, she's from Grenada, and she was talking about how Grenada is the largest exporter of nutmeg but there's no robust infrastructure for manufacturing of nutmeg products, you know, and she was talking about that like that's something that should change. I love when everything comes together, because she talked about it and it was just like, okay, yeah, that makes sense, that makes sense, but you now are, you know, explaining that. You know food security also. Part of this also is owning the. You know the planting, manufacturing and the multiple use cases of a crop you know that we have. So this is incredible. So, all right, as you wrap up, how can people support your work, the work that you're doing with Mission Food Possible?
Speaker 2:Mission Food Possible is the leading grassroots food security organization in Jamaica. I say that to say for us to have been around for almost eight years. It speaks to our integrity and our commitment to the people. Right, when we think about what is the most important, what is most important to people. Food is right up there and we're doing the work. We could do a lot more with the help of the people. People want to assist us Missionfoodpossiblecom. They can find us at mission underscore food underscore possible on social media platforms. Shoot us a message. They can email us at info at missionfoodpossiblecom. There are links there to donate to help us.
Speaker 2:But helping us it's not just money. We didn't choose this, it chose us, and so the more people that are aware that this is a scourge is great for the people that run Mission Food Possible Right, and being that I never planned to go into activism or go into charity work, it's something that you realize that is a business. For us. It's not a business. We don't want it to be a business. We want this issue to end, and we want it to end tomorrow. So really and truly.
Speaker 2:Equally important to us is if you hit us up and find out exactly what is food insecurity and what can we do about it? Our next training supposed to be coming up in October. Every year we're active especially around World Food Day, which is October 16th, right and so, and then right through the year year we're doing various programmings and stuff like that. So just look out for mission food possible, ask the questions. We're here to be resources for people and if you can help us, if you can donate all the links are on our website or just shoot me a message on social media um, and people can find me at peter ivy official as well wonderful, peter.
Speaker 1:thank you so much. I feel the passion, I feel the commitment coming through. I'm very excited. You already know you're part of the Carry, our Friends community. Mikey T, big up yourself all the time and, as I love to say at the end of every episode walk good.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much and thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. You're welcome.
