The
Battle for Paradise by Naomi Klein, 2018, Excerpts
As a legacy of the slave
plantation economy first established under Spanish rule, much of the island’s
agriculture is industrial scale, with many crops grown for export or testing
purposes. Roughly 85 percent of the food Puerto Ricans actually eat is imported.
After Hurricane Maria, just as
the upheaval revealed the perils of Puerto Rico’s import addicted and highly
centralized energy system, it also unmasked the extraordinary vulnerability of
its food supply. All over the island, industrial-scale farms growing mono-crops
of banana, plantains, papaya, coffee, and corn looked they had been flattened
with a scythe.
For 28 years, Organizacion
Boricua has been publicly making the case that “agro-ecology” should form the
basis of Puerto Rico’s food system, capable of providing adequate, affordable,
nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for the entire population.
Agro-ecology refers to a combination of traditional farming methods that
promotes resilience and protects the biodiversity, a rejection of the pesticides
and other toxins, and a commitment to rebuilding social relationships between
farmers and local communities. The group has been warning about the dangers of
chokepoints in Puerto Rico’s highly centralized system, with almost all of its
food imports shipping out of a single port in Jacksonville, Florida.
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