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
Related Stories
Vox reports
Another blackout hit Puerto Rico Wednesday morning [April 18], the Associated Press reported, cutting off electricity across the whole island and once again undermining the fragile progress made in restoring power in the [seven] months since Hurricane Maria struck.
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority said that it could be 24 to 36 hours before power is restored to the areas that had it. Its priorities are to get electricity back to hospitals, the San Juan Airport, water systems, and financial centers
The outage was caused by a bulldozer hitting a power line while trying to remove a collapsed transmission tower, according to El Nuevo Dia.[1] The company responsible was D. Grimm, a subcontractor for Cobra Energy, which received a $200 million contract to repair Puerto Rico's devastated power grid.
Cobra was selected alongside Whitefish Energy Services in the aftermath of the hurricane, but the deals drew scrutiny from Congress because the companies had limited experience in grid repair on such a large scale.
[...] more than 61,000 utility customers[PDF] haven't had electricity since last September, the US Department of Energy reported earlier this month. Since "customer" typically refers to a household, which can encompass several people, estimates indicate that more than 100,000 people haven't had power since the storm.
[...] The blackout is the largest[2] in US history and is now the second-largest in the world. Only Typhoon Haiyan, one of the largest tropical storms ever to make landfall and the deadliest storm ever to hit the Philippines, had a bigger impact on electricity service.
[1] En Español
[2] As measured in millions of customer hours of lost electricity service.
Study Puts Puerto Rico Death Toll From Hurricane Maria Near 5,000
Perhaps 5,000 people died in Puerto Rico in 2017 for reasons related to September's Hurricane Maria, according to a study that dismisses the official death toll of 64 as "a substantial underestimate."
A research team led by scientists at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health didn't simply attempt to count dead bodies in the wake of the powerful storm. Instead, they surveyed randomly chosen households and asked the occupants about their experiences.
From that approach, they concluded that between Sept. 20 and Dec. 31, 2017, there were 4,645 "excess deaths" — that is, deaths that would not have occurred if the island hadn't been plunged into a prolonged disaster following the devastating storm.
But the estimate isn't as precise as the figure implies. The researchers calculate there is a 95 percent likelihood the death toll was somewhere between about 800 and 8,500 people. They say about 5,000 is a likely figure.
Mortality in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria (open, DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1803972) (DX)
Puerto Rico increases Hurricane Maria death toll to 2,975
Officials in Puerto Rico now say 2,975 people died following Hurricane Maria - a devastating storm that struck the US island territory in September 2017. The revised death toll is nearly 50 times the previous estimate of 64.
Governor Ricardo Rossello "accepted" the findings in a long-awaited independent investigation. The mayor of the capital, San Juan, accused the US government of deliberately downplaying the impact of the storm.
Puerto Rico has struggled to repair its infrastructure and power grid since the storm, and is asking US Congress for $139bn (£108bn) in recovery funds.
[...] The government's initial number was for those killed directly by the hurricane, crushed by collapsing buildings, drowned or hit by flying debris.
But the new report also counted those who died in the six months following the storm as a result of poor healthcare provision and a lack of electricity and clean water. Repeated power cuts also led to an increased number of deaths from diabetes and sepsis.
George Washington University (GWU) report: Ascertainment of the Estimated Excess Mortality from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico
Previously: Puerto Rican Death Toll From Hurricane Maria May be Many Times Higher Than Official Estimate
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday September 20 2018, @12:00PM (4 children)
tl;dr, yes, if they can raise enough money to rebuild the infrastructure, and get enough people to work on the plantations.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Thursday September 20 2018, @12:55PM (2 children)
But is it a good idea. Whats to say there won't be another devastating hurricane in 5 years time?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:40PM (1 child)
There probably will be more hurricanes. However, if the cost to rebuild the infrastructure is less than the profits from business before the next hurricane, then it's worth doing.
Also, I don't think we can ignore human factors in how devastating a hurricane is: New York City got back to mostly normal in a matter of weeks after Hurricane Sandy, even though there was lots of damage and flooding. Houston is basically fine now even though Hurricane Harvey wrecked and flooded the place a year ago. Meanwhile, New Orleans has still not returned to the population it had before Katrina hit over a decade ago, and Puerto Rico is still a complete mess 1 year later. Don't tell me that this doesn't have something to do with the opinions of the powerful about which areas actually matter, which by all appearances has a lot to do with whether the people who are most affected by the disaster are rich and white.
Lastly, there's reason to think that part of the agenda with Puerto Rico is to allow things to continue to suck so that more Puerto Ricans will leave and/or drop dead, thus allowing people with the big bucks to snap up everything worth having well under its usual market value.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday September 20 2018, @05:23PM
I don't think evil enough to have thought of that. Makes sense.
Too bad they can't revolt or express an opinion.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.
(Score: 4, Funny) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:07PM
Subverting Betteridge's law: my true goal
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @12:54PM (5 children)
According to the summary:
The island can produce 240,000 quintales (100lb) of coffee but is only hitting 40,000
They are producing 17 Pounds of coffee? I'm sure can find something better to do.
(Score: 2) by r1348 on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:12PM (4 children)
Get your conversion right. 240.000 quintales = 24.000.000 kg. That's WAY more than 100lb.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:35PM (1 child)
What!? Only 24.0 kilograms!?
Sips coffee.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:11PM
Sips tea.
FTFY
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by GDX on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:45PM (1 child)
The conversion is not exactly right as we don't now what quintal they are referring as 1 Quintal can mean between 46kg and 59kg depending of the country and historical time plus the metric quintal that is the one that weight 100kg. For me they are referring to a 50kg quintal, a common rounding version in a lot of places after metrification.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:31PM
My bet is that they do mean 100kg but typed it as lbs out of habit.
My backup bet is that, because they are millennials, they don't know the difference between the two without Googling it.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:11PM (22 children)
Until the next bout of hurricanes. What happens then? If they want to foster stability, shouldn't they be developing hurricane-resistant coffee plantations? I don't know, maybe genetically modified, or bonsai, coffee trees. Someone might suggest that if they got profitability high enough, they could pay to insure against future natural disasters, but I'd imagine the premiums would be astronomical and money won't magically regrow all the crops and rehouse the workers overnight.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:17PM (18 children)
By that logic, we could as easily ask, "What good is it for farmers in Oklahoma to replant and rebuild? What will happen when the next tornado comes along?"
We start over again because that is what we do.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:45PM (7 children)
Fair point. I suppose I was doubting how truly self-sufficient someone can be in a region that becomes frequently wracked by hurricanes. Perhaps I underestimate human resilience and resourcefulness.
If a cat has kittens, does a rat have rittens, a bat bittens and a mat mittens?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:16PM (4 children)
Among the reasons that the Aborigine can go on walkabout through the Australian desert is that whenever they find some water, they'll fill an ostrich eggshell by spitting into it, burying it then telling all the other Aborigine where it is.
The pygmies of the African jungle live largely on elephant meat. They swarm the elephants.
During my own walkabout through the San Joaquin Valley of California, I kept an eye out for trees, then ate the leaves of the plants that grew beneath them, as well as cactus. (Just don't eat the skin of cactus - it gave me the shits.)
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday September 20 2018, @07:55PM (3 children)
Hi Mike, you know Ostriches don't grow in Australia don't you?
Maybe you have them confused with the Thunder Bird [wikipedia.org] or the Demon Duck of Doom. [wikipedia.org]
Funny story, I saw one of those once, outside the Flinders St. Station in Melbourne waiting for a taxi.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday September 20 2018, @08:16PM (2 children)
However Wikipedia said Ostrich farming in Australia gave rise to feral ones.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday September 20 2018, @09:19PM (1 child)
Oh, I was not aware of that.
I did eat Kangaroo once in a nice restaurant in Melbourne.
When you're visiting a country you should always make an effort to eat their national symbol.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @12:36AM
For your own good I hope you never visit Dickland.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:34PM (1 child)
They've had a coffee industry on that island since the 18th century, so I don't think that hurricane was the first one to have hit their plantations.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:59PM
They are competing in a globalized economy now. And it may be that the hurricanes are getting stronger and/or more frequent.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:02PM (4 children)
Sure, but are they going to be hit by more frequent and more powerful hurricanes? There's only so many times you can be wiped out before you have to pick up and leave.
And unlike other Caribbean islanders, Puerto Ricans can pretty easily migrate themselves to the mainland United States.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:47PM (3 children)
Granted, lots of people there are really poor. The place is kind of socialist, and they'd be like Venezuela if they didn't have the US federal government controlling the currency.
For the sort of people who can build normal American suburban homes though, it isn't much of a price difference to build tornado-proof housing. It's actually cheaper when labor is costly, but I'm guessing labor is cheap in Puerto Rico. Several of the houses built in the www.monolithic.org style have withstood tornados.
Plants are more trouble, especially keeping costs down...
The plants are normally pruned to not exceed 2 feet tall. That isn't too big. If you put them in pots, you can bring them inside. You can use a forklift. There are nursery robots to move pots now.
You can of course also grow them indoors. Fortunately, they don't like much light.
There is always insurance of course. The trouble here is that farmers who don't buy insurance will have lower costs than those who buy insurance. The insurance buyers will go out of business before the disaster even happens.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:08PM (2 children)
I thought about bringing them indoors. If you're going to grow them indoors all the time, you might as well not grow them in Puerto Rico. Unless you can build some sort of open structure that reduces (wind?) damage but lets in most of the sunlight.
Bringing the plants indoors temporarily seems like a difficult task. Although there are a lot of unemployed people in Puerto Rico who might be temporarily hired to help that happen. One big problem is that you only have days of advance notice before a major hurricane hits. It could veer off and leave the crops unscathed. It would suck to bring the plants indoors only for it to be a false alarm.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @08:00PM
Seriously, the plants don't need much light. They die in full sunlight. It's the same with cocoa bean plants. They naturally grow at the bottom of a forest.
Any "sort of open structure that reduces (wind?) damage but lets in most of the sunlight" will kill the plants. A normal house with windows is almost perfect for coffee beans, lacking only the high humidity... and soil too I guess, unless your floor is beyond dirty.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 21 2018, @04:47PM
Robusta (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffea_canephora) beans are what they should be growing. Cheap, hardy, & enough caffeine content to wake the dead.
(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:13PM (4 children)
Did a single tornado wipe out the entire state of Oklahoma?
Is such a tornado due again next year, and each year into the future, with increasing frequency due to climate change?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 20 2018, @04:56PM (3 children)
"Tornado alley" ring any bells?
Washington DC delenda est.
(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.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @02:06PM (2 children)
I'm thinking temporary dome structures to protect coffee plants. But that's a shot in the dark, they might get blown away, and a lot of them would be needed.
For the grid problem, increase the amount of home solar panels.
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(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:12PM (1 child)
Stuff getting blown against it.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @03:27PM
Not a problem for one particular structure:
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(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday September 20 2018, @05:06PM (1 child)
We should invest on getting those plantations back up and running. People who have been successfully growing coffee for generations are a pretty safe bet.
I do have a question, though. How much more motivated can a "dedicated group of millennials" be than the people whose livelihood it has been for generations? How much more can the "know-how of young exiles" be than the people who have been doing nothing else but growing coffee in those locations for more than a hundred years?
The NGOs are great for offering to help, but the build-up is a little over the top.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @11:06PM
The locals may know how to grow coffee, but they are ignorant about important things like the proper number and gender-types of bathrooms to install in each plantation, how to properly address transsexual coffee bean pickers (it's "tzhu" informally and "Uszhted" formally), whether the plantation's website should be developed in Ruby on Rails or in Rust, and which Code of Conduct is most encompassing of differing viewpoints.