This article was originally published on Nexus Media News. It is part of the joint policy week “Food”
Maritza del Rosario López Cortés comes from a long line of farmers in central Puerto Rico. But it wasn’t until after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017, leaving many citizens of her hometown of Villalba without electricity or food, that she fully understood the importance of local producers.
“It took a long time for the food to get here,” Lopez Cortes said. “There was no new food that looked centuries old. ” She and her circle of relatives relied on non-perishable MREs to supplement their food, ready to — eat packaged foods through FEMA — for weeks, she said. He remembers the relief he felt when he discovered bananas and tubers that were still good to eat in the fields near his home at the time.
The experiment showed how vulnerable the island’s food systems are and led the 37-year-old cosmetologist and mother of two to revive her family’s farm. He assumed control of Hacienda López Cortés in 2020, now a farm for 6 people, growing staple crops such as pumpkin, coffee and bananas. It maintains an active social media presence, posts photos of its crops and workers on Facebook, and sells the most of its products to local restaurants and supermarkets. She was excited to talk about some of the classic farming practices she employs, adding bulls to plow the fields.
“All the time I ask other people, if they close supermarkets, if they close department stores, what would you eat, do you know where it comes from?” said Lopez Cortes. “Seeing how much other people want access to new foods motivates me. each and every day. “
In the five years since Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico has noticed a resurgence of small-scale agriculture and projects that teach others about the origin of their food. Many, like López Cortés, have learned to rely heavily on regenerative cultivation practices, such as crop rotation and the use of shade plants.
The territory of EE. UU. es vulnerable to a series of natural disasters, which add up to intense tropical typhoons and droughts. Hurricane seasons, which are getting longer and more intense due to climate change, have left a fragile power grid that causes normal power outages, disrupting daily life, work and life. schooling of Puerto Ricans. More than 80% of Puerto Rico’s food is imported, so when a primary typhoon hits, it can delay shipments from the mainland. Residents end up with half-empty shelves in the store.
The emerging burden of living on the island combined with emerging food loads around the world will only make it harder for Puerto Rican families to prepare for long-term herbal disasters, said Luis Alexis Rodriguez-Cruz, a food systems researcher at USDA’s Caribbean Climate. A 2020 report from George Washington University found that about 40 percent of Puerto Rican families said they had been food insecure in recent years. Survey participants revealed that they lacked cash to buy food and were hungry. Food charges in Puerto Rico are around 18 percent higher than they would be on the mainland, according to the island’s Institute of Statistics.
Supporting local farmers can improve food security on the island, Rodriguez-Cruz said. In addition, devastating events like Hurricane Maria offer farmers opportunities to build more resilient systems, according to a study he co-authored last year. Rodriguez-Cruz and her fellow researchers found that farmers “who faced overall losses followed maximum adaptation practices. “(The study also found that farmers with higher levels of schooling were more likely to adopt coping practices. )
Rodriguez-Cruz said he has detected a growing interest in local agriculture and Puerto Rican farms. “[You hear it] on the radio and TV. There is more verbal exchange around food production, agriculture. And I think that’s definitely what happened with Mary. [The storm] catalyzed a lot of that,” he said.
He pointed to operations like El Josco Bravo, a biological farm about 20 miles west of San Juan that has produced a new generation of organic farmers.
“FEMA gave my mom a bag of Skittles. My mom has diabetes.
Puerto Rican TikToker and freelance journalist Bianca Graulau posted a video a few months ago about El Josco Bravo’s educational program. He indicated that the program had resources for about 150 participants, but had won several hundred additional applications. (El Josco Bravo representatives can simply be reached for comment. )
Although nongovernmental systems have been stepped up to provide technical education and support, Rodriguez-Cruz said local and federal governments can do more to enable smallholder farmers to cope with the demanding administrative and bureaucratic situations of managing a farm, Rodriguez-Cruz said. they come with the simplification of documents and new farmers navigate directives and regulations, he said.
Supporting local food systems can improve public fitness and post-herbal disaster outcomes, said Ruth Santiago, a Puerto Rican lawyer and activist. “They gave my mom a bag of Skittles. My mom has diabetes. (About 16 percent of adults on the island have diabetes, compared to 10 percent of adults on the mainland. )
Santiago, who advocates for electric power from the sun on rooftops with an organization called Queremos Sol, said local agriculture, such as renewable energy, can make the island more climate-resilient. “We want to think about other tactics to have food security and sovereignty here to not only be resilient, but also to decrease medical expenses, which here are very high. “
Continued power cuts on the island are exacerbating the lack of confidence in food by making it difficult to refrigerate perishable goods. In April, a chimney at a power plant cut off the power to more than a million consumers in Puerto Rico. offices of the island’s electrical authority, with flashy bags of spoiled food to show the government what the cuts had charged them.
López Cortés discovered meaning in her new vocation as a farmer, but she also contributed to her family’s economic results. “I don’t do those massive grocery purchases of $500 to $600 anymore,” he said. “I buy meat, fish and rice, however, my roots and vegetables come from my field. I don’t buy canned or frozen food as often.
As Puerto Rico heads into another hurricane season, she said she feels more prepared than she does for Maria. “If another big hurricane comes, I think I can put food on the table for my circle of relatives,” he said. just my nuclear circle of relatives, but my extended circle of relatives: my brothers, my uncles too. “
She stopped.
“My purpose is that my products end up on the plates of the other town of Villalba. Once everyone here has a full stomach, I hope [my meal] will be successful in the rest of Puerto Rico,” Lopez Cortes said.
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