RAFI-USA has long recognized the inequities that many farmers in the U.S. face. Several of our programs and projects address these on a national level such as our Farmer Crisis Hotline and federal policy work. Due to our organization being centered in North Carolina, we’ve focused much of our work on supporting small to mid-scale farmers in NC and the Southeast U.S. However, in the past few years, we’ve extended programming even farther south, developing relationships with several nonprofits in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Farmers based in the U.S. Caribbean territories face many of the same challenges as mainland farmers, however the Indigenous and colonized histories of the islands, current U.S. governing structures and underrepresentation as territories, trends in agriculture land ownership, effects of hurricanes and climate disasters, dynamics of tourism and oil refinery industries, along with supply chain challenges all feed into the equation that demonstrates the critical need for resources to support farm resiliency.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a long history in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands starting in 1898 when the U.S. took territorial control as a result of the Spanish-American War. At that time, agriculture was the mainstay of the economy in both territories. The USDA recognized this and established several experiment stations focusing on research in tropical agriculture.
In more recent times the USDA has faced allegations of discrimination against farmers and ranchers in the U.S. Caribbean territories, much like it has on the mainland. Several cases, including one in Puerto Rico, resulted in the USDA reaching a settlement with a group of farmers who had accused the agency of discriminating against them based on their race and national origin. Similarly, in 2015, a group of Black farmers in the U.S. Virgin Islands led a class-action lawsuit against the USDA, alleging that the agency had discriminated against them in the distribution of loan programs and other benefits.
The USDA has also faced criticism for its handling of disaster relief efforts in the U.S. Caribbean territories, particularly in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017, with the agency being accused of failing to adequately support farmers and ranchers, leading to significant economic and agricultural losses.
Given the particular challenges and inequities farmers experience in the U.S. Caribbean territories, RAFI-USA sought out and entered into a Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Cooperative Agreement with the USDA in 2022. This project includes formal partnerships with Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition in St. Croix, USVI and Alliance for Agriculture in Puerto Rico. This agreement enables RAFI-USA to work with these groups to strengthen technical assistance programs in support of producers with place-based or culturally appropriate farm conservation strategies and to help farmers apply to USDA NRCS programs for on-farm conservation efforts. In order for RAFI-USA staff to fully understand the landscape and deepen the working partnerships, several staff members, including RAFI-USA Executive Director Edna Rodriguez, visited with the USVI and PR partners this winter [2023].
U.S. Virgin Islands — St. Croix
In December, RAFI-USA team members traveled to St. Croix for a deeper dive into the partnership with Virgin Islands Good Food Coalition (GFC). The agrarian and farm production context on an island that is approximately 84 square miles is vastly different than in mainland Southeast U.S.
The GFC staff helped the RAFI-USA team to gain a better understanding of the social, environmental, and economic factors affecting the island’s food system and efforts for food sovereignty. Through our travels across the island we saw some farms facing arid conditions, seasonal fires, shortening water tables, and well-water salinization. We also encountered many farms dealing with flooding, soil erosion, severe pest pressure, and challenges in transportation. Regardless of topography, all farmers shared some struggles in common: lack of access to land ownership, supply chain gaps, and the innovation and resilience needed to innovate within a food system in which 98% of food is imported.
In spite of these intensifying challenges, GFC and farmers in St. Croix are actively asserting themselves as land stewards and market innovators. Where wells can no longer be drilled or soil erosion is rampant, farmers are slowing and redistributing water on their landscape by capturing rooftop rainwater in self-designed systems, irrigating efficiently, mulching, terracing, and more. The significance of on-farm conservation in the USVI cannot be understated: farmers are stewarding not only the land they own or manage, but also the resources “downstream” of them, which is exactly what GFC, RAFI-USA, and NRCS want to further support by reducing financial barriers that stand in their way.
While the NRCS EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) program can provide cost share support for farmers who plan to remediate resource concerns on agricultural land, the NRCS Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) rewards producers who are already proactively conserving resources with a small annual payment. While RAFI-USA aims to engage farmers in NRCS EQIP, we also want to increase awareness and participation in CSP, so that more farmers can receive credit for their long-standing conservation efforts and receive CSP’s financial reward.
A Visit to Mr. Charles Burton’s Farm
A teacher and professional engineer, Mr. Charles Burton farms perennial fruits and annual vegetables in the east-central region of St. Croix, prioritizing soil and water conservation.
After observing his efforts to terrace beds, mulch crops under cardboard, and use rainwater collected in a self-built rooftop catchment designed according to NRCS specifications, NRCS Caribbean Area Director Luis Cruz-Arroyo and USVI District Conservationist Rudy O’Reilly agreed that Mr. Burton would be a great candidate for CSP.
The proof was in the pudding: when he pulled back the cardboard and dug his spade into the terraced turmeric bed, the soil was rich: moist, dark, and with a good, loose structure. O’Reilly noted that cardboard is a common mulch material in USVI because it’s easily available, free, and does a decent job of capturing moisture and suppressing weeds. NRCS proposing the incentive program to the farmer rather than steering him away from it was perhaps the most inspiring part of the trip.
ARTfarm, run by Luca and Christina Gasperi in the arid southeast, showcases its farm resiliency through innovative and diverse practices, a thriving on-farm retail base, and site-specific problem solving practices. Such practices include rotational grazing fencing, native tree establishment, micro-mister irrigation, and a black soldier fly incubator. In a closed-loop farm input strategy, black soldier fly larvae use food waste to produce nutrient-dense feed for poultry, reducing farm costs. Every day, food waste is added to a barrel, which attracts black soldier flies that lay eggs. As the larvae hatch, they attempt to leave through a hole in the barrel, but instead fall into a container where they are captured as a protein-rich feed for poultry.
Beyond farm visits, GFC and RAFI-USA team members held outreach events, helping to build bridges between farmers and staff members of NRCS of the Caribbean Area. Luis Cruz-Arroyo and Rudy O’Reilly shared information about available NRCS programs and talked about the practices commonly implemented and cost-shared in the USVI. After a dramatic decrease in EQIP and CSP contracts in USVI in 2021 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, contracts and awarded funds are increasing again, and NRCS wants to reach even more historically underserved farmers and ranchers for stronger conservation outcomes on a vulnerable island.
Puerto Rico
RAFI-USA had a fruitful trip to Puerto Rico as well, where RAFI-USA staff met with farmers and partners to achieve several objectives, including strengthening the organization’s relationship with its NRCS project partner and subawardee, the Alliance for Agriculture (AFA), aligning strategies to increase farmer access to NRCS programs, and fostering connections between Puerto Rican farmers and RAFI-USA.
RAFI-USA staff visited several farms to understand their challenges as well as learn about the impressive agroecological collectives they are a part of that employ a systemic approach to improving the local food system from diverse perspectives.
Agroecology, as a set of practices and a social movement, is alive and well on the island. Farmers with smaller operations have developed various agroecological techniques and employ diverse horticultural and fruit production approaches. The island’s major challenges include hurricanes, climate change and the desire to gain the sovereignty to produce and consume their own food. (Farmers are still struggling to overcome the damage caused by Fiona in September 2022.)
A visit to the Organic Farmers Market in San Juan allowed us to identify, together with farmers, some crucial conservation practices that fit well with agroecology and that can be supported by NRCS: tree/shrub pruning and establishment, living barriers against the wind, mulching or ground cover, residue management and tillage, use of vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides, a perennial grass) for erosion control, and many more practices.
In reviewing agricultural education opportunities, we were encouraged to hear about the no-cost, farmer to farmer agroecological courses, in which each farmer has a specific number of students and they together learn about agroecological practices on a farm. We also visited the rural education project, Camposofia in Utuado, which is a successful, economically accessible educational option for farmers’ children. The initiative seeks to stimulate repopulation and opportunities in rural areas of the country. The school’s approach is inspired by Waldorf Education which emphasizes a holistic approach to learning, focusing on the development of the whole child — their intellectual, emotional, social, and physical capacities. The curriculum integrates academic subjects with artistic and practical activities, including the study of biodynamic agriculture.
We saw examples of cooperative work at Cooperativa Orgánica Madre Tierra, a farmer coop that provides educational and marketing training for agroecological farmers who sell their products in the Organic Market of Placita Roosevelt (also organized by the cooperative), the first organic farmers market in San Juan. And we met members of the Cooperativa de Porcicultores de Puerto Rico, a pork coop that integrates more than 70 small pork producers as they work to maintain sovereignty through local pork production.
As for market innovations, we were impressed by Puerto Rico Produce, a group of entrepreneurs who share a great passion for food and are reconnecting communities with local producers. They are providing direct access to local products through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), an online market, and a restaurant Cocina Abierta, where local farmers’ ingredients are transformed into high-end gastronomic cuisine. There is also an innovative project, Fideicomiso de Tierras Comunitarias para la Agricultura Sostenible (Community Land Trust for Sustainable Agriculture), that aims to secure the perpetual use of arable land as communal assets for the rural residents of Puerto Rico and promote food sovereignty by fostering sustainable, ecological agriculture practices.
Between these trips and the technical assistance extended to farmers since the start of the project by Good Food Coalition and Alliance for Agriculture, the NRCS cooperative agreement partnership shows promise in helping farmers access financial support for farm viability and natural resource conservation. Whether it’s publicly funded cost-share assistance or private philanthropic infrastructure funds (or a combination of the two), the role of trusted local partners is crucial in order to connect with and support the farming community.
We at RAFI-USA appreciated the hospitality and thoughtful sharing of both the unique issues faced by our U.S. Caribbean territory partners and the incredible assets in these island communities.