The following information was featured in the New York Times Magazine Travel section this week (see the full article at http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/eco-tripping-garden-variety-eco-st ow-the-new-new-urbanism/#more-70333)

TREASURE BEACH, JAMAICA Instead of flying in foie gras like many island resorts, Jake’s creates its menu almost entirely around what’s grown on the island. About 90 percent of the produce — that is, all fruit and most vegetables — comes from nearby farms, and 80 percent of the meat and 100 percent of the seafood is local. Calabash Bay; (876) 965-0635; islandoutpost.com/jakes; entrees $9 to $21.

Don't all the other guest houses and villas in TB use, in the main, what's grown on the island?

Unfortunately a lot of people buy the imported produce like tomatoes, onions and potatoes, etc. because it's priced cheaper sometimes than our locally grown produce. This hurts the farmers a lot.

We've stayed at Rainbow Tree and I know they do their best to buy locally grown veggies and fruits. All fish is local. Most meat is local. I think most of the other places do that too, but I couldn't vouch for that.

I would actually be curious to know that are the things that are bought that aren't local. What foods are included on the menus that can't be made with local products? Don't get me wrong, I think the percentage of local produce used is great. I assumed this was a strong comment about the ways AIs work with local growers. I'm just curious to know why the percentage isn't 100.

There are no AIs in Treasure Beach. AIs get their food in bulk and normally buy from the lowest bidder so long as the quality measures up. I would make the assumption AIs have the lowest percentage of locally grown food. A lot of food eaten in Treasure Beach is imported from off island. Rice is not from Jamaica. Peas are not from Jamaica. It is difficult and more expensive to find local chicken though those are fatter and better. Most fruit and vegetables come from outside TB because it is too dry and hot to grow much there. They still come from Jamaica.

I've heard that just because it comes out of the back of the vegetable van (pickup truck) it does not mean that its local, meaning Jamaican. Some of those vans are just resellers of imported food.

Can anyone confirm this?

you should be asking the vendor where his food comes from and if it is sprayed

most will tell you if it comes from foreign,
they will admit to spraying if they do carry out that practice

in my experience, i never met a foodie selling foreign food, if they did it was a something special and usually very expensive

i am a veggie, so i never bought meat off the truck

There was another article in the NY Times on March 31 that talked about fish being served in the Florida Keys. A lot of what is being called local comes from as far away as Vietnam. The restaurants say they can call it local because the distributor they get it from is local. What a crock!
I sent the article to a friend who lives in Key West, and this is what he told me:
It may be bizarre, but it’s definitely reality. That fish-killing cold snap was really something. For days, we had fish floating belly-up in front of the dock including species I’d never seen before, and since we often snorkel in front of our dock, that was surprising. Beyond that, though, the fishing industry has been incredibly irresponsible in how they’ve “managed” the local waters. I, for one, was glad to see the Feds step in, though that would not be an opinion I’d loudly voice around here. Yes, there are some conscientious fisherman who take a long-term view, but there are plenty more from the “I’ll worry about that after I’ve retired” school.
Here is the link to the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/us/31fish.html?emc=eta1&pagewanted=all

I am wondering how many fishermen in TB take that same view about not overfishing. From what I see, they pull anything out of the water they can, including fish too small to eat. Someone needs to thin about future generations-even what will happen in 5 years from now. Our waters are being overfished.

The waters around Treasure Beach are fished out.