{"id":1699,"date":"2019-01-28T10:44:15","date_gmt":"2019-01-28T15:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.presbyterianmission.org\/food-faith\/?p=1699"},"modified":"2021-01-29T12:02:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T17:02:53","slug":"puerto-rico-climate-change-food","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/food-faith\/puertorico\/","title":{"rendered":"Puerto Rico, Climate Change & Food"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rev. Miguel Dros Lorenzo from Puerto Rico’s Southwest Presbytery and Rev. Jose Gonzalez Col\u00f3n, moderator of the Synod Borik\u00e9n Puerto Rico during our visit to<\/strong> Fideicomiso<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Overview<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In December, I participated in a delegation comprised of staff from Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA),\u00a0Presbyterian Self-Development of People (SDOP), and\u00a0Special Offerings, and we invited local pastors and mid-council staff to join us for the visits to Fideicomiso de la Tierra, a decimated family farm in Lares, and Presbyterian Camp Guacio over the course of two days.<\/p>\n

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Edwin and Lourdes in a greenhouse that Cesar and Lourdes were able to reconstruct; pepper plants growing with a hydroponic nutrient mix whose pump is powered by the sun<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

I remained in Puerto Rico for an additional week and visited a number of farms, agroecology education sites, and agroecology initiatives. The purpose was to learn more about the kinds of initiatives happening and what groups and people were involved in training beginning producers, scaling up and out the local food economy, and working to increase the food sovereignty and resilience of the archipelago as it inevitably faces future storms and other challenges in the age of climate chaos.<\/p>\n

Delegation Visits<\/h3>\n

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The delegation visited the farm of Lourdes and Cesar in Lares, which had been entirely destroyed by Hurricane Maria. They have dug themselves out and are slowly, ever so slowly, rebuilding their impressive hydroponic vegetable growing systems, powered by solar energy. The couple employ low-income elderly folks in the isolated town and provide so much to the community, partly supported by a Collaborative Baptist Church in the area. Lares is about a 30-minute windy drive from the Presbyterian Camp Guacio in western Puerto Rico.<\/p>\n

Before we headed west to the farm, we visited that morning with Fideicomiso de la Tierra, Puerto Rico\u2019s first community land trust, and the work that PHP, PDA and SDOP are jointly funding.<\/p>\n

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Farmer Lourdes showed us their solar-powered hydroponic nutrient mixing station<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Mariolga Juli\u00e1 Pachecho, Special Projects Manager for Fideicomiso, gave us an overall orientation to the work and in this short video<\/a> explained the geography of the natural canal where they have created a community land trust to prevent gentrification and work to keep the eight communities of the area intact, vibrant and healthy.<\/p>\n

PNS news story on Lares farm.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

PNS news story on El Guacio<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Fifteen months after Hurricane Maria<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Jes\u00fas V\u00e1zquez Negr\u00f3n, an organizer with Organizaci\u00f3n Boricu\u00e1 de Agricultura Ecol\u00f3gica de Puerto Rico (its full name in Spanish), is standing with Dalma Cartagena, an agroecology educator and agronomist at a public secondary school in Orocovis, Puerto Rico.<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

I visited with various people and groups involved with agroecological food production. There are numerous vibrant initiatives and organizations working to increase agricultural self-reliance and the production of healthy, organically-grown food around the islands.<\/p>\n

Organizaci\u00f3n Boricu\u00e1 for Ecological Agriculture is the major player in coordinating such efforts. In recognition of their excellent work, the US Food Sovereignty Alliance gave Organizaci\u00f3n Boricu\u00e1 the 2018 international Food Sovereignty Prize in Bellingham, Washington in October, 2018.<\/p>\n

Jes\u00fas V\u00e1zquez Negr\u00f3n, an organizer with Organizaci\u00f3n Boricu\u00e1 de Agricultura Ecol\u00f3gica de Puerto Rico (its full name in Spanish), is standing with Dalma Cartagena, an agroecology educator and agronomist at a public secondary school in Orocovis, Puerto Rico. Dalma is one of the founders and serves on the Board of Directors of (locally known as Boricu\u00e1). Jes\u00fas and I spent the day together, which included a visit to Dalma in the middle of the island, a visit with Ian Pag\u00e1n Roig at Finca Josco Bravo in Toa Alta, and some visits in San Juan.<\/p>\n

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The central mountain range of Puerto Rico on our drive to Orocovis<\/strong><\/p><\/div>\n

Jes\u00fas explained that just six months ago, most of the trees you could see from here were still just sticks without foliage.<\/p>\n

Looking across the valley, you can see many evergreens that are still mostly stripped of their needles from last year’s hurricane; on the left, much of the foliage has recovered.<\/p>\n

Jes\u00fas later explained that in the past the mangrove forests along the coast of P.R. were seen by the government as\u00a0contributing to the breeding of mosquitoes and were cut down many years ago. In addition, many more were destroyed to make room for \u2018development\u2019 of hotels, houses, roads, etc. Here is a very short video of this.<\/p>\n