Agroecology is the future of Puerto Rican agriculture

Abstract

First paragraph:

The documentary film Serán las dueñas de la tierra (Stewards of the Land) depicts a struggle that every­one in the U.S. should know about: not just to understand how difficult growing healthy food is, but also to see the consequences of colonialism on our unincorporated territory of Puerto Rico and its corrupt land allocation practices. The film follows three landless farmers in Puerto Rico as they try to obtain and keep farmland. Puerto Rico im­ports 85% of its food, and one-third of the population is food insecure. Yet it has large amounts of prime, fertile farmland, water, and sun; under other cir­cumstances, it could be feeding all of its people well and exporting produce. Hurricanes have wreaked havoc on its farms over the past eight years (especially Irma and María in 2017), but better preparation and infrastructure might help farmers to retain more of their crops. . . .