SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Puerto Rico bets on a coffee comeback
Thousands of rural families in Puerto Rico's rugged central mountains want to rebuild their traditional coffee economy after the devastation of Hurricane Maria. And one year on, they're betting on a dedicated group of millennials to get the job done, writes Tom Laffay. If they don't succeed, it could mark the end of coffee in Puerto Rico, forcing these last families to leave the island for good.
Puerto Rican coffee farmers lost an estimated 85% of their crops, or some 18 million coffee trees valued at $60m (£46m), and many have lost their homes in the wake of hurricanes Irma and María. [...] On average, 80% of coffee trees were destroyed by Hurricane María.
[...] ConPRometidos is an NGO run by millennials with a mission to create a stable, productive, and self-sufficient Puerto Rico, harnessing the energy, ideas and finances of the island's young diaspora. It began its work about six years ago in tapping into the know-how of young exiles in order to help address some of the problems they had left behind.
The hurricanes presented a new challenge but the plight of the coffee farmers caught the group's eye. They are soliciting a $3m grant from the Unidos por Puerto Rico Foundation to fund a five-year, island-wide project that aims to provide much needed relief to the island's coffee sector. The island can produce 240,000 quintales (100lb) of coffee but is only hitting 40,000, says the organisation's 30-year-old co-founder Isabel Rullán, which means it's importing coffee unnecessarily. Increasing production could bring about $65m dollars to the poor mountain regions, she says.
Related: Second-Largest Blackout in World History Hits Puerto Rico
Puerto Rican Death Toll From Hurricane Maria May be Many Times Higher Than Official Estimate
Puerto Rican Officials Raise Hurricane Maria Death Toll to 2,975 Following GWU Report
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 20 2018, @05:27PM (2 children)
Isn't the damage from a single massive tornado usually limited to a community or two and maybe a string of farms?
It's not as though the state's infrastructure is entirely destroyed.
Yes, they will get worse and more frequent. But nothing like a hurricane?
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:57PM (1 child)
Joplin, Missouri [theatlantic.com]. It looks pretty bad to me.
What level of entirely destroyed is entirely enough?
Mississippi Flood of 1993 [wurstwisdom.com]. Hmm, looks pretty flooded out and destroyed to me. Do totally destructive floods from a river count, or do they have to come from a hurricane?
Also, I'm pretty sure those people went right back to living, working, and farming on the banks of the Mississippi, even though floods will probably come again and be worse with climate change and such.
Nature is always tearing down what we build. Anyone who owns a home knows that. Nature is gonna keep on doing it, too, even after humanity has died out or spread out to the stars.
So why, again, can Puerto Ricans not rebuild and begin again after a hurricane?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 20 2018, @10:10PM
I know Joplin was pretty bad. And I know of other towns, smaller than Joplin that have been largely or completely destroyed. It doesn't seem to be on the same scale of destruction of a hurricane which can seriously affect entire states.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.