Trips to visit my godfather in Puerto Rico were not just a simple matter of packing a suitcase and heading to the airport. Before leaving New York City, he’d give me a call to tell me what he wanted me to bring.
He had lived in the Bronx, (the county in the United States with the largest number of Puerto Ricans) for more than three decades, working hard as a hospital and nursing home maintenance person, eventually working his way up to supervisor. He saved his money and while still working bought a home in Santa Isabel, which is on the southern coast of the island. When he retired he moved “home” to Puerto Rico. This, the dream of many mainland Puerto Ricans, is not always realized. He was elated to be able to garden for real, and was planting fruit trees all around the new house. His apartment in the Bronx was always overloaded with plants. There were, however, problems in his retirement paradise, and on phone calls he would talk constantly about the costs of food and how expensive everything was there. He had always been a thrifty shopper in New York, and knew every spot in the Bronx where platanos were 12 for a dollar and where other staples were on sale. So during our phone calls before I headed to the island, he would say, “Bring me coffee.” Coffee is a staple for most Puerto Ricans, brewed with either scalded milk for cafe con leche, or black and strong with spoonfuls of sugar served in a small cup. I have never entered a Puerto Rican home where I was not offered coffee.
The first time I went down after he had moved back to the island, I found the request really weird. Why would anyone have to bring coffee to an island famous for its coffee? This article titled “Puerto Rican Coffee: The Bittersweet History & Rise of Specialty” provides some of the answer, noting that:
By 1950, Puerto Rico found itself in the precarious situation of consuming more coffee than it was able to produce. Once a strong producing country, we had to begin importing coffee to be blended with local beans. Today, we struggle to produce 28% of our domestic coffee consumption. Yes, over two-thirds of the coffee we consume is imported.
When I arrived with a suitcase stuffed with more coffee than clothing, he was elated. I had picked up a bargain in the Bronx. Later on that week we went to a local supermarket, and I was stunned by the prices of not only staples like coffee, but also of vegetables like plantains, bags of rice, and milk. Some items were double the price. I never complained again about having to schlep food to him. I didn’t even think about the reasons for such high prices beyond knowing that most food in PR is imported, and though I intellectually was aware of the history of the Jones Act, at the time I wasn’t making a connection between higher costs for food, building materials, and other imports.
My godfather passed away last September. In some ways I am happy that he did not live to see the destruction of the island that always held a central place in his heart, relieved that he did not have to see all that he had worked for washed away by Maria. That he didn’t have to witness the government of the United States, his government, further endanger his beloved isle is perhaps a blessing. He was a proud Boricua, and a proud American citizen.
(FYI: In the weeks, months and years ahead we will be discussing Puerto Rico, and I’m posting this map just so readers can familiarize themselves with place names and locations there, since the bulk of the news reports have centered only on San Juan.)
One of the things that delighted me during visits to my Padrino was driving through the nearby countryside to go to the local farmer’s market, and riding through some of the new farms that were being developed in an attempt to diversify the agricultural economy.
My strongest memory of those drives is stopping by the roadside to pick up mangos, which had dropped from the trees lining the roadway.
This short Smithsonian clip gives an aerial view.
Puerto Rico's agricultural economy was once dominated by sugar plantations. Today, the same fields hold everything from corn and rice to bananas, plantains, and mangoes.
This video clip was made before Hurricane Maria. It examines the nation’s food imports and efforts to develop the agricultural industry and move toward sustainability.
Puerto Rico's agricultural economy was once dominated by sugar plantations. Today, the same fields hold everything from corn and rice to bananas, plantains, and mangoes.
In 2014, newpioneer posted this hopeful piece about a related type of farming: solar farms. It’s titled “A Greener, Cleaner Future for the Tropical Green of Puerto Rico.”
I’m very proud that my area on the South Coast of Puerto Rico – Guayama, Salinas and Santa Isabel – has started to answer this haunting call from Edison. Working together, with determined political leadership, we have become a pioneer of renewable energy production in the Caribbean.
¡Pa'lante!
New farming, diversification, and new energy development go hand in hand. Then along came Maria. This New York Times piece details the tragic tale: “Puerto Rico’s Agriculture and Farmers Decimated by Maria.”
In a matter of hours, Hurricane Maria wiped out about 80 percent of the crop value in Puerto Rico — making it one of the costliest storms to hit the island’s agriculture industry, said Carlos Flores Ortega, Puerto Rico’s secretary of the Department of Agriculture.
For over 400 years, Puerto Rico’s economy was based on agriculture, historically focused on sugar cane, tobacco and citrus fruits. The island’s economy rapidly industrialized after World War II, leading to the downfall of agriculture production. In recent years, in part because of the island’s economic recession, people went back to the fields, and the industry is going through a small renaissance, growing at 3 to 5 percent every year over the past six years, Mr. Flores said. A growing farm-to-table movement has generated optimism in recent years about an agricultural rebirth.
Puerto Rico already imports about 85 percent of its food, and now its food imports are certain to rise drastically as local products like coffee and plantains are added to the list of Maria’s staggering losses. Local staples that stocked supermarkets, school lunchrooms and even Walmart are gone.
I recount this history a bit differently, starting with slavery and Domino sugar. The history of pushing people off the land and into factories on the island and moving them out to the mainland is also glossed over in this piece, but that’s a tale for another time.
Some of it is recounted in this PBS documentary Mi Puerto Rico.
Dairy
While there’s ample opportunity to run into cows grazing all along the island’s countryside, the cost of basics like milk and margarine can be challenging for families. A gallon of milk in Puerto Rico costs about $2.99, while the average US price is $2.39. Margarine, traditionally a cheap alternative to butter, is $2.59 a pound, while the average US price is only $1.09.
Iceberg lettuce
The PR Institute of Statistics findings reveal that the price of iceberg lettuce is the highest in all of the US, at $1.96 a head, whereas the average price across the US is $1.41.
Sugar
Puerto Ricans savor their café con leche with national pride, but it wouldn’t be the same without the sweet stuff. The high cost of sugar, $3.21 per pound compared to $2.31 in the States, is quite ironic given that Puerto Rico was home to one of the hemisphere’s biggest sugar industries in the first half of the 20th century.
Cornflakes
This staple breakfast food is $5.09 for a 10oz box, compared to a $3.51 nationwide average.
Bread
For Puerto Ricans, even their daily bread is at a premium. A loaf of bread will run you $2.39 as compared to the US average of $1.53.
Chips
And there’s no comfort in comfort food. A bag of potato chips will cost you a whopping $4.55, while the US average is $3.49.
Keep in mind that all of these food costs are even higher when you think about what the average person earns in PR. Look at these data from the Census Bureau:
Census Bureau Reports Household Income Rising in States, Dropping in Puerto Rico
The Census Bureau has released the 2015 American Community Survey for Puerto Rico. The “Puerto Rico Community Survey” Census includes data on the incomes of households in Puerto Rico as well as information about the population.
Earlier this week, the Census Bureau reported that the median household income across the United States in 2015 was $56,500, up 5.2 percent from 2014—the largest single-year increase since record-keeping began in 1967. The New York Times reported that this change, along with a record-breaking drop in poverty, is “breaking the pattern of stagnation.”
“For the first time in recent years,” the report continued, “the benefits of renewed prosperity are spreading broadly.”
Not in Puerto Rico.
The new figures show that the median household income for Puerto Rico in 2015 was $18,626, down from $18,948 in 2014, and $19,428 in 2013. In other words, Puerto Rico shows a drop in income for the past two years, while the 50 States are showing increases.
Puerto Rico’s median household income is 32 percent — less than one third of the national average of $56,500. The state with the lowest household median income in 2015 was Mississippi, at $40,593. Median household income in PR is 45 percent — less than half — of the median household income in Mississippi.
Granted, about one-third of the island’s people receive Nutrition Assistance. However, this doesn’t solve the food problems that we will see in the future. As more people do not have jobs, as the infrastructure is slowly rebuilt, the basics like housing, water, food, and electricity are all going to be a problem for many island citizens for months and years to come.
Right-wing critics here in the U.S. point fingers at Puerto Rico and have dubbed it a “welfare state.” Nelson Denis answers that critique, pointing to the billions of dollars in profits extracted from PR in a piece titled “Puerto Rico is supporting the US … not the other way around.”
The island is a captive market of the US: the fifth largest market in the world for US products. 85 percent of everything purchased and consumed in Puerto Rico, comes from the US. All of these products are wildly overpriced, thanks to the “price protection” of the Jones Act, aka the Law of Cabotage. For the past few years, consumer spending on the island has hovered at $35 billion per year. http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/cbdirectory/cb_retail.php?cat_id=13
Thanks to the Jones Act, the prices paid by Puerto Rican consumers are roughly 20% higher than on the mainland. 20% of $35 billion (the annual consumer spending) is $7 billion. This is the amount of excess prices on goods paid every year, by Puerto Rican consumers. 85% (the percentage of goods that come from the US) of $7 billion is $5.95 billion. So Puerto Ricans pay roughly $5.95 billion in annual excess profits to US corporations, thanks to the Jones Act. That amount exceeds the $4.6 billion in federal benefits that the US “gives” to Puerto Rico.
But wait, there’s more…due to the reduction in Medicare Advantage funds as of 2016, the US will reduce its “giving” to Puerto Rico by $500 million. So as of 2016, Puerto Ricans will receive only $4.1billion back from the US government, but pay $5.95 billion in excess profits to US corporations. And this is counting just the excess profits, on top of the original profits.
I will continue to track the abysmal post-Maria rescue efforts overseen by the Orange Hater in the White House, and the heroic efforts by others on the island and who have come from afar to help.
Getting food, water, medical assistance, and electricity to 3.5 million U.S. citizens there and in the U.S. Virgin islands has to be be the top priority at the moment.
Thank you to everyone who has and will continue to support the rescue and recovery efforts. This is going to be a very long struggle.
From what I know of the strength and resilience of the Puerto Rican people, rebuilding will happen. Many island dwellers like my godfather will wind up moving to the mainland. They will, however, hold Puerto Rico in their hearts. Some, like Padrino, will get the chance to move home again in the future.
Tengo Puerto Rico en Mi Corazón.
Pa’lante and bendición Padrino—wherever your spirit may be.