“Food Security – Everybody’s business” theme for this year’s Agriculture Show

By Christopher Tobutt 

We are living in an uncertain world, so, “Food Security – Everybody’s Business,” was a great theme for the 55th Agriculture Show at the Stacey Watler Pavilion, Lower Valley on Ash Wednesday. 55 Agricultural Show

There was truly something for all ages and locally cultivated wonders for everyone, old or young, big or little. There were pony rides, hot-dog stands, candy-floss stalls, wonderful inflatable animal stalls for toddlers and the young-at-heart, artists showing their paintings, and I can’t mention the food because it would make your mouth water – but there was fish and fritters, festival, burgers, heavy cake. It was a see-food diet – you saw the food, smelled it, and ate it. There were bouncy castles and there were bubbles everywhere – there were some serious bubble blowing machines.

Delrose was selling her beautiful fruits and vegetables: “Its all local produce from local farmers – its banana, plantain Long beans cucumbers season peppers and scotch bonnet. The most popular are the seasoning peppers, hot peppers, and plantains.”

Elton Graham is a man of many talents, and one of those is selling fruits and vegetables: “I love to do fruits we’ve got papayas, pineapples, tomatoes, eggs, we’ve got cabbage and other vegetables we’ve got scallion and callaloo which is good for the blood. We’ve got coconut, we’ve got sorrel wine, we’ve got pumpkins and natural juices we’ve got a lot of stuff going on.”

Michelle Green (“Green – for the plants!”) had a very big display of all kinds of garden plants, from little ornamentals to fruit trees and everything, with the Growing Beauty Nursery: “You’ll find us near the Camana Bay Roundabout,” she said. “We have a lot of fruit trees like mango, breadfruit, lime, Ethiopian Apple but we have a lot of ornamentals, succulents,” she said.

Moms and dads love taking the little ones to see the animals. Goats are always a favorite – babies with their mothers. Cows too, and then don’t forget the fancy fowl dressed in their feathers fur and frills, staring at you like queens and Kings of old.

Inside the pavilion were the prize exhibits – beautiful hands of bananas, and every other fruit or vegetable you can think of – with 1st 2nd and 3rd prizes for each.

There were traditional craftspeople too – Rose May Ebanks was there, demonstrating with nimble fingers how you make beautiful baskets, hats and bags from silver thatch palm leaves.

H.E the Governor, Jane Owen, said: “This is a time to be thankful to be living in these beautiful islands, and to celebrate the farming and land use heritage…We want to create partnerships between farmers, restaurants, environmentalists, and technicians to ensure that our solutions are sustainable and based on international best practice – our relationship with the UK gives us a good dialogue partner for that.”

The Premier, Hon Julianna O’Connor-Connolly said: “Much progress has also been made with the development of the 2022-2036 Cayman Islands Food and Nutrition Security Policy to provide a framework to make the Cayman Islands a food and nutrition secure country. The Policy, which is being actioned by this administration, seeks to address the contributing factors undermining our food security while crafting strategies to deal with underlying issues such as the health and well being of people, rising food import bill and access to safe, quality food sources. I look forward to enjoying the Agriculture Show this year, meeting and speaking with our hard-working farmers who are working to strengthen our agricultural sector. I salute them as they are the stewards of our land, entrusted with the responsibility of nourishing it for future generations of Caymanians.” 

Minister for Agriculture, Hon. Jay Ebanks said: The Cayman Islands Food and Nutrition Security Policy was designed to make sure we have access to good food, for everyone in our country, I’m excited to work together with everyone in the Agricultural Society, and I encourage everyone to take a step in support of our hardworking farmers and food producers. “