Puerto Rico’s Small-Scale Farming Revolution
Credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Region via Flickr.
Maritza del Rosario López Cortés comes from a long line of farmers in central Puerto Rico. But it was only after Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017, leaving many residents in her hometown of Villalba without electricity or access to food, that she fully appreciated the importance of local growers.
“It took so long for food to get here,” López Cortés said. “There was no fresh food for what felt like ages.” For weeks, Cortés and her family relied on shelf-stable MREs to supplement their meals — packaged ready-to-eat meals distributed by FEMA. She remembers the relief she felt when she discovered plantains and root vegetables still growing in fields near her home during that time.
The experience exposed the vulnerability of the island’s food systems and led the 37-year-old cosmetologist and mother of two to revive her family’s farm. In 2020, she took the helm at Hacienda López Cortés — now a six-person operation producing staple crops like calabaza (squash), coffee and plantains. She maintains an active presence on social media, posting photos of her harvest and her employees to Facebook, and sells most of her products to local restaurants and supermarkets. López Cortés was eager to discuss the traditional farming practices she employs, which include using bulls to plow the fields.
“I ask people all the time. If the supermarkets close, if the stores close, what would you eat — do you know where it’s coming from?” López Cortés said. “Seeing how much people need access to fresh food motivates me every day.”
In the five years since Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico has seen a resurgence in small-scale farming and projects that educate locals about where their food comes from. Many, like López Cortés, have learned to rely heavily on such regenerative growing practices as crop rotation and the use of shade plants.
Maritza del Rosario López Cortés on her farm. Courtesy Hacienda López Cortés.
The island is vulnerable to natural disasters like tropical storms and drought. The wear and tear of hurricane season, lengthened and intensified by climate change, has weakened Puerto Rico’s fragile electric grid. Frequent power outages are disruptive to daily life, work and education. Moreover, 80 percent of Puerto Rico’s food is imported. When a major storm hits, shipments from the mainland are delayed and island residents are met with half-empty shelves at the store.
Rising costs of living on the island, and higher food prices worldwide, will only make it more difficult for Puerto Rican families to prepare for future natural disasters, said Luis Alexis Rodríguez-Cruz, a food systems researcher at the USDA’s Caribbean Climate Hub. A 2020 report from George Washington University found that 40 percent of Puerto Rican families have experienced food insecurity in recent years. Survey participants revealed that they often went hungry because they ran out of money for food. Food prices in Puerto Rico are about 18 percent higher than they would be on the mainland, according to the island’s Institute of Statistics.
Supporting local farmers can reduce food insecurity across the island, Rodríguez-Cruz said. What’s more, devastating events like Hurricane Maria present opportunities for farmers to build more resilient systems, according to a study Rodríguez-Cruz co-authored last year. The study showed that farmers “who faced a total loss adopted the most adaptation practices.” Farmers with higher education levels also were shown to be more likely to adopt these practices.
Rodríguez-Cruz said he has noticed a growing interest in local agriculture and support for Puerto Rican farms. “[You hear it] on the radio and the TV. There’s more conversation around food production, agriculture. And I think that’s definitely what happened with Maria. [The storm] catalyzed much of that,” he said.
He pointed to operations like El Josco Bravo, an organic teaching farm about 20 miles west of San Juan, which is churning out a new generation of organic farmers. Puerto Rican Tiktoker and independent journalist Bianca Graulau posted a video about El Josco Bravo’s educational program a few months ago. She reported that the program had resources for about 150 participants, but received hundreds more applications. (Representatives from El Josco Bravo could not be reached for comment.)
Nongovernmental programs have stepped up to provide farmers with technical education and support. But Rodríguez-Cruz said the local and federal government could do more to help small farmers with the administrative and bureaucratic challenges of running a farm — such as streamlining paperwork and helping new farmers navigate guidelines and regulations.
Supporting local food systems can improve public health outcomes during and after natural disasters, said Ruth Santiago, a Puerto Rican lawyer and activist. “After Hurricane Maria, FEMA brought in food and it was horrible—very highly processed with high sugar content,” she said. “They gave my mother a bag of Skittles. My mother’s diabetic.” (About 16 percent of adults on the island have diabetes, compared to 10 percent of adults on the mainland.)
Santiago, who advocates for rooftop solar electricity with a group called Queremos Sol, said local farming and renewable energy can make the island more climate-resilient. “We really need to think about alternate ways of having food security and sovereignty here in order not just to be resilient, but also to cut down on medical expenses, which are very high here.”
The island’s ongoing power outages exacerbate food insecurity by making it difficult to refrigerate perishables. In April, a fire at a power plant shut off power for more than one million consumers in Puerto Rico. San Juan residents protesting at the island’s power authority’s offices carried bags of spoiled food to show authorities what the outages were costing them.
López Cortés has found meaning in her new calling as a farmer. It has also helped her household’s bottom line. “I don’t do those huge $500 to $600 grocery hauls anymore,” she said. “I buy some meat, fish and rice, but my roots and vegetables come from my field. I don’t buy canned or frozen food as often anymore.”
As Puerto Rico heads into another hurricane season, López Cortés feels she is better prepared than she was for María. “If another big hurricane comes, I think I’ll be able to put food on the table for my family,” she said. “Not just my nuclear family, but my extended family — my brothers, my uncles, too.”
She paused.
“My goal,” she said, “is that my produce ends up on the plate of other Villalba residents. Once everyone here has a full belly, I hope [my produce] ends up reaching the rest of Puerto Rico.”
