Peasant balances and agroecological scaling in Puerto Rican coffee farming

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the relationship between agroecological scaling and the agrarian question, based on Puerto Rico’s contradictory agricultural and demographic tendencies in the aftermath of Hurricanes Irma and Maria. We find that labor-based intensification, literally rebuilding and recovering the diversity of farms devastated by the hurricanes, is a necessary step toward scaling out agroecology in Puerto Rico. The rebuilding of farms requires both ample manual labor and accumulated local knowledge, two elements which are difficult to bring together in Puerto Rico due to a complex interplay of historical and social factors. Decades of public policy based on the belief that the small farmer is not essential to Puerto Rico have produced a series of obstacles for farmers who wish to recover their farms. The peasant economy, a field of study that recognizes peasant farmers as capable subjects of their own historical resistance – within and against economies of empire – can be a powerful tool in the effort to recover local food systems and (re)create a vibrant small farmer sector. Here, we explore peasant balances, a capacity to aggregate daily farm management decisions into coherent, multifunctional economic strategies that allow for dynamic responses to changing environmental, social and market conditions, and how these balances relate to Puerto Rican coffee farmers’ capacity to stay on the land and transition toward agroecological production. Fieldwork included qualitative interviews with leaders of small farmers’ organizations, Puerto Rican government officials and farmers in the mountainous central region between August 2017 and March 2018.

KEYWORDS:

• Peasant balances
• agrarian political economy
• Chayanov
• agroecology
• just recovery

Acknowledgments

Authors are grateful to the family farmers of Puerto Rico and to Jan van der Ploeg for providing valuable insight on the topics addressed in this research.

Notes

1. Proyecto Agroecológico El Josco Bravo is carried out on land rented from the Puerto Rican Land Authority, which, despite holding tens of thousands of hectares of unused land, has opted toward an aggressive anti-peasant policy that uses bureaucratic means to pressure the few small farmers who rent small parcels of land. It also rents thousands of hectares of farmland to transnational corporations such as Monsanto for the production of genetically modified seeds.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nils McCune

Nils McCune is a Research Fellow at the School for Environment and Sustainability of the University of Michigan.

Ivette Perfecto

Ivette Perfecto is the George W. Pack Professor of Ecology, Natural Resources and Environment, at the School for Environment and Sustainability of the University of Michigan.

Katia Avilés-Vázquez

Katia Avilés-Vázquez is a member of Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Ecológica de Puerto Rico.

Jesús Vázquez-Negrón

Jesús Vázquez-Negrón is a member of Organización Boricuá de Agricultura Ecológica de Puerto Rico.

John Vandermeer

John Vandermeer is the Asa Grey Distinguished University Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan.