When Senior Resident Magistrate Glen Brown told Donovan Lawrence that he should return to St Elizabeth, it was not part of the official sentence and the advice was directed at one person.

However, Lawrence would be well advised to heed what he was told in the Corporate Area RM Court, where he was given a suspended sentence for stealing a cellular phone, as reported in Tuesday's STAR. And those who are in a position similar to Lawrence, where they have left their fertile rural roots to go hungry in the big city, would do well to think twice.

As Brown told Lawrence, "The problem is this: you can't survive in Kingston." This was after the accused had said he used to plant tomatoes and sell yam sticks in St Elizabeth. His hard times came when his father and aunt died and his van was stolen.

All this, of course, is no excuse for stealing and the nine months' hard labour suspended sentence reflected that.

Ran to kingston

Kingston is full of strong, intelligent but unemployed (or unemployable) young men who have followed a dream or a relative into the capital from the rural areas ('country', if you will), leaving behind the opportunity to make a living to suffer in the city. So, we have a situation where the land lies idle in 'country', and very capable hands are idle in Kingston.

In this drive to grow and eat Jamaican it is these youths who must be targeted and given incentives to literally return to their roots. Success would mean more food and less crime.

And that is worth an investment.