Can An Island Feed Itself?
Article

Can An Island Feed Itself?

After years of destructive weather that have disrupted Puerto Rico’s food supplies, new visions of local agriculture are taking root.

Moses Velasquez-Manoff
New York Times Magazine, 2022
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Puerto Rico is facing several crises at once – climate change with unpredictable  destructive weather events, population migration, high crime and unemployment rates, loss of food security and dependence on imports. As Moises Velasquez-Manoff reports in The New York Times Magazine, grassroots organic farming is growing in popularity as a solution that could potentially tackle all these crises at once. The island’s experience can be useful to all those seeking to strengthen local economies and minimize reliance on global supply chains.

Summary

Grassroots organic farming is gaining strength in Puerto Rico as a possible solution to multiple crises.

Puerto Rico grew 65% of its food in the late 1930s. Now, it imports 80% of the food islanders eat. The island’s reliance on food deliveries from the United States mainland renders it vulnerable, especially during and after extreme weather events.

When Maria, a powerful category 5 hurricane, hit Puerto Rico in 2017, it was the most devastating storm in the island’s recent history. The winds and floods destroyed large swathes of agricultural land and roads, challenging food production and food distribution.

The island’s secretary of agriculture, Ramón González Beiró, set the goal of doubling the total food the island grows for local use by 2026. However, recent census data shows that the number of farms on Puerto Rico decreased from 2012 to 2018, as Puerto Ricans continued their slow but steady trend of leaving the island. Hurricane Maria accelerated this migration.

Though the number of farms is down, the number of agricultural collectives and nonprofits is on the rise, with organic farming...

About the Author

Moises Velasquez-Manoff is a New York Times Magazine contributing writer. He wrote the book An Epidemic of Absence: A New Way of Understanding Allergies and Autoimmune Diseases.

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