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Narrating agricultural resilience after Hurricane María: how smallholder farmers in Puerto Rico leverage self-sufficiency and collaborative agency in a climate-vulnerable food system

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Abstract

Climate change is a threat to food system stability, with small islands particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events. In Puerto Rico, a diminished agricultural sector and resulting food import dependence have been implicated in reduced diet quality, rural impoverishment, and periodic food insecurity during natural disasters. In contrast, smallholder farmers in Puerto Rico serve as cultural emblems of self-sufficient food production, providing fresh foods to local communities in an informal economy and leveraging traditional knowledge systems to manage varying ecological and climatic constraints. The current mixed methods study sought to document this expertise and employed a questionnaire and narrative interviewing in a purposeful sample of 30 smallholder farmers after Hurricane María to (1) identify experiences in post-disaster food access and agricultural recovery and (2) reveal underlying socioecological knowledge that may contribute to a more climate resilient food system in Puerto Rico. Although the hurricane resulted in significant damages, farmers contributed to post-disaster food access by sharing a variety of surviving fruits, vegetables, and root crops among community members. Practices such as crop diversification, seed banking, and soil conservation were identified as climate resilient farm management strategies, and smallholder farmer networks were discussed as a promising solution to amass resources and bolster agricultural productivity. These recommendations were shared in a narrative highlighting socioecological identity, self-sufficiency, community and cultural heritage, and collaborative agency as integral to agricultural resilience. Efforts to promote climate resilience in Puerto Rico must leverage smallholder farmers’ socioecological expertise to reclaim a more equitable, sustainable, and community-owned food system.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2

adapted from RIHN 2013

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Data availability

Due to the nature of this research, participants of this study did not agree for their data to be shared publicly, so supporting data are not available.

Abbreviations

NASS:

National Agricultural Statistics Service

SD:

Standard Deviation

US:

United States

USDA:

United States Department of Agriculture

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Acknowledgements

We want to acknowledge Wanqing Xu for assisting with the interviews’ transcriptions. This study was possible thanks to the thoughtful contributions of our study participants and community partners, especially Fundación Bucarabón, in Puerto Rico.

Funding

AM was supported by the National Institutes of Health National Research Service Award Training Grant in Academic Nutrition (Grant No. T32 DK 007703) and the Rose Fellowship at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. ALC received funding from National Institutes of Health (5T32DK007703-24). This work was in part funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (Grant Nos. K01-HL120951 and R01-HL143792 to JM), and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (Grant No. R21-MD013650). JM was supported by a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Culture of Health Leaders Award. The funding sources had no involvement in the research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 665 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Abrania Marrero, Andrea Lόpez-Cepero & Josiemer Mattei

  2. Department of International Development, Community, and Environment, Clark University, 950 Main Street, Worcester, MA, 01610, USA

    Ramón Borges-Méndez

Authors
  1. Abrania Marrero
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  2. Andrea Lόpez-Cepero
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  3. Ramón Borges-Méndez
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  4. Josiemer Mattei
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Contributions

AM conceptualized the research question, conducted interviews, transcription, data analysis and interpretation, and wrote the manuscript. ALC assisted in data analysis and interrater reliability assessments. RBM assisted in data collection, community partnerships, and contributed to the manuscript. JM supervised conduct and management of the study and contributed to the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Josiemer Mattei.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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All participants provided written informed consent.

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All participants provided written informed consent to publish.

Ethical approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board of Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Ponce Health Sciences University (Protocols IRB19-0034 and 1903007592, respectively).

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Marrero, A., Lόpez-Cepero, A., Borges-Méndez, R. et al. Narrating agricultural resilience after Hurricane María: how smallholder farmers in Puerto Rico leverage self-sufficiency and collaborative agency in a climate-vulnerable food system. Agric Hum Values 39, 555–571 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-021-10267-1

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