Farm in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico (Oquendo from Freeport, NY/CC BY 2.0)
By NELSON ÁLVAREZ FEBLES
The Puerto Rican Cultural Center (PRCC) in Chicago has sent a letter to Congressional leaders requesting “the immediate retooling of Puerto Rico’s Nutritional Assistance Program (NAP) so that at least half of the funds allocated to this program be directed to support the island’s local farmers and promote greater agricultural self-sufficiency.”
Thank you to La Luchadora, Congresswoman @NydiaVelazquez and her staff for meeting with us this morning to discuss a path forward towards food sovereignty in Puerto Rico. pic.twitter.com/e5VNtC2qvx
— Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Ctr (@jacprcc) April 12, 2023
More than 80 percent of the food consumed by Puerto Rico’s more than three million inhabitants is imported, 40 percent of the population suffers food insecurity, and the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane María in 2017 put local climate vulnerability on the table.
The call is made for nutritional security and food sovereignty for Puerto Rico. Traditionally, food security means that enough food is available, in sufficient quantities and good quality, year-round for everybody. Along with that understanding, modern food security adds criteria such as local and proximity production, cultural affinity, and environmentally sustainable farming.
Few people know that Puerto Rico was hailed by the first geographical studies made by U.S. scientists as “the land of the farmer” and that the best lands were vastly taken over by U.S. sugar interests in the first half of the last century. Yet, around 1940, local farmers produced 65 percent of the food consumed by almost two million people, while at the same time exporting sugar, coffee and tobacco, among other products.
Most of that food was produced by small and medium-sized family farms in the hills of the interior. But later in the ’50s and ’60s, in a political and economic decision to industrialize the island’s economy and reduce its population, jíbaro families were encouraged to move to the island’s coastal cities and the continental United States, while food imports and supermarkets substituted local production.
We welcome the PRCC’s initiative and suggest these additional points to further the discussion:
- Any future farming policies should take into consideration two major tenants: First, the priority should be production for the inhabitants of Puerto Rico, in order to reduce imports, increase food security, improve quality, and promote real local economic and social changes. Second, due to the fragility of the local ecosystems and high population density, ecological farming methods should be part of the recommendations made to officials and institutions charged with the implementation of local agricultural development.
- Efforts should begin with the identification of and working with the many local organizations, specialists and farmers already involved in local and sustainable/ecological farming, food distribution, and education. Top-down decisions from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other agencies have, in the past, been part of the problem. Puerto Rico has geographical, linguistic and cultural characteristics which have usually not been taken into consideration, and agriculture is full of examples of mistakes that have resulted in dramatic failures.
Among the main policy problems standing in the way of more local farming and food production are the difficulty in accessing land, the lack of micro and small financial services, subsidies oriented towards sustainable farming practices and reduction of natural resources devastation, and the availability of appropriate technical support and ecologically proven inputs.
Puerto Rico has enjoyed relative food security at some periods in the past and has the natural and human resources to fully do so in the future. Support from the federal government and other stateside institutions, especially from the Puerto Rican diaspora, are most welcome if care is taken to support ongoing efforts on the island in the areas of ecological farming, food distribution, and farmers’ markets.
Serious policy changes are needed to achieve real food security and sovereignty. Including the PRCC’s Puerto Rico Food Sovereignty Program in the upcoming farm bill would be a good first step Congress can take.
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Nelson Álvarez Febles is a Puerto Rico social ecologist and specialist in agroecology. He is the author of several books, most recently Sembramos a tres partes: los surcos de la agroecología y la soberanía alimentaria.
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Thanks for promoting a conversation around this issue. All voices matter in the journalistic conversation about permanent decolonization in Puerto Rico.
And those voices must be ready to have their arguments scrutinized by journalists and others.
Here is another perspective thanks to the Center on a New Economy in San Juan:
CNE concerned about the impact on food aid of the proposal to encourage agriculture through the PAN
The Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago, six mayors and the College of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico promote the use of the program to promote food sovereignty
https://www.elnuevodia.com/corresponsalias/washington-dc/notas/preocupa-al-cne-el-impacto-en-la-ayuda alimentaria-de-la-propuesta-para-incentivar-la-agricultura-por-medio-del-pan/
Washington D.C. – The Center for a New Economy (CNE) think tank fears that the proposal to use federal food assistance as a vehicle to support Puerto Rico’s agriculture and food sovereignty will generate confusion and “end up decreasing” aid to the poorest.
“At first, this may sound like a nice proposal, but if we analyze the details, the conclusion is that it may end up generating more confusion than helping farmers,” said Sergio Marxuach, director of Public Policy at the CNE.
Ahead of the debate on efforts for Puerto Rico to transition from the Nutrition Assistance Program (PAN) to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Juan Antonio Corretjer Puerto Rican Cultural Center in Chicago, proposed to Congress that an initiative be considered to allocate at least half of the funds to promote Puerto Rican agriculture and food sovereignty.
The proposal has the support of the College of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), the Sustainable Agriculture Community Land Trust, and the mayors of Naranjito, Orocovis, Loíza, Aguadilla, Sabana Grande and Juncos.
“There are other federal programs to support farmers and agriculture … There is no need to decrease how little aid families participating in the nutrition assistance program receive to subsidize farmers. They are creating an unnecessary conflict between two groups that need support and help,” Marxuach said.
Federico de Jesus Febles, who lobbies on this issue for the Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago, indicated that they do not advocate reducing the allocation to families and that, if there is not going to be an increase in nutrition assistance funds, it should be explored to use programs aimed at directly supporting farmers.
The leadership of Congress can decide, in September, whether to move forward with a transition plan from the PAN to SNAP, although Governor Pedro Pierluisi believes that this will not imply, at this time, an increase in federal funds.
Under the PAN, which is received as a block grant, Puerto Rico receives, this federal fiscal year, $2.825 billion. Under SNAP, which according to a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture requires a 10-year transition, Puerto Rico could receive an additional $1.7 billion.
Regarding the demands of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center of Chicago for the rules of the food assistance programs to be translated into Puerto Rican Spanish, Marxuach commented that the Food and Nutrition Service of the United States Department of Agriculture “is already in a process of translating into Spanish all the rules and guidelines of the SNAP program, with a view to its future application to Puerto Rico.”
Therefore, he does not see the need for another proposal aimed at the United States Agency for International Development administering the program.
“In fact, it’s not clear to me if that agency doesn’t even have jurisdiction to administer domestic programs. This proposal may result in an even greater delay in the transition to SNAP, something that does not benefit anyone in Puerto Rico,” Marxuach said.
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