Vice-president of Academic Administration at the Northern  Caribbean University (NCU), Professor Marilyn Anderson, strongly believes that  the sound of music can affect food production.

Corn and tomatoes harvested  from the experiment .

Professor Marilyn Anderson  inspects corn stalks that she says grew taller after being exposed to  music.

Thick tomato foilage grown  inside the greenhouse where classical music was played continuously. (Photos:  Contributed)

Corn and tomatoes  harvested from the experiment .

She hopes that her study will be further proof of this, perhaps to  the extent of impacting the level of local food production.

“Within the space of a very short time, say about even two or  three years, food production results can be obtained that will definitely  indicate that no Jamaican needs to go to bed hungry, and that no school child  needs to go to school beset by undernutrition,” she told the Jamaica Observer  recently.

The professor has reason to be optimistic.

She undertook a small study three years ago, which saw classical  music being played daily in a small greenhouse where tomatoes, corn and pumpkin  were planted.

“The corn stalks grew very, very thick, an, of course, the corns  were above my head.

Then of course, the tomatoes were cherry-red and beautiful,” she  said.

The pumpkin plants were, however, removed from the greenhouse  prior to the end of the project because they were simply growing too quickly,  she said.

But while her first experiment yielded success, she admitted that  she is not sure what results she will get when she uses dancehall music  instead.

Previous research has shown that while live plants grow bending  towards the source of classical music, they tend to bend away from the speakers  when loud music is played.

Either way, she believes the findings will be of value to Jamaica,  and will add to the body of existing knowledge on food production best  practices.

“You have to have evidence-based information.

You could go ahead and say something, but that would not be the  right way to approach it, because the fact is that you would have to say you  have actually tested it through experiments and this is the result.

I think this would make better sense, because you have people who  are scientific-minded and those who are sceptics who will challenge you,” she  said.

Professor Anderson was the dean of the College of Humanities,  Behavioural and Social Sciences at the NCU, prior to becoming the vice-president  of academic administration.

She has a degree in Music Education from Eastern Michigan  University and was a music teacher at the Michigan-based Peterson-Warren  Academy.

She was also the chair of the music department at NCU and is a  member of several music organisations in Jamaica, including the Jamaica Music  Teachers Association.

The professor’s interest in exploring the connection between music  and plant production was sparked while grocery shopping one day in a large  supermarket in the US.

She was amazed at the wide variety of organic products on display  in the produce aisle and wondered how Jamaica could also go about producing  ground provisions without fertilisers.

Through her research, Professor Anderson came across Dan Carlson’s  work on sound therapy and the impact it has on food production.

That American-born researcher argued that sounds could be used to  open the stomata of plants so they can better absorb nutrients.

Carlson achieved worldwide recognition for his research and is  well known for his purple passion plant — normally at full growth at I8 inches — which grew to 1,300 feet after being exposed to music, and was listed in the  Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest indoor plant.

He was also able to get the US Department of Agriculture on board  with some of his projects.

Professor Anderson believes food insecurity in Jamaica would be a  problem of the past if agencies such as the Ministry of Agriculture and the  managers of agro-processing companies consider her research.

“This whole approach has been used elsewhere with a great amount  of success and the fact is that Jamaica is looking for alternatives.

It could assist in increased production, in terms of the yield  that you get, for example, from tomatoes on one vine,” she said.

Food safety and plant health specialist at the Rural Agricultural  Development Authority, Francine Webb, said this is definitely a project that she  is interested in.

“It sounds familiar to me, but I cannot recall any examples,  although I have heard of this in the past.

“I don’t know of it being done in Jamaica at all,” she said.

“We definitely need to have the data to move forward, but it is  something that I would be interested in looking at to see what had been done,”  she assured.

Professor Anderson said although she plans to start the project  later this month, she hasn’t yet decided on what produce she will be trying this  time around.

She knows she will definitely be using tomatoes again, but she  wants to utilise fruits such as grapes and other types of vegetables as  well.

She is currently in the process of securing the equipment for her  experiment which will be done in a larger greenhouse at NCU.