I support bringing aid directly to farmers, community land trusts, and municipalities in Puerto Rico! By almost exclusively relying on food coming from outside of the island, Puerto Rico’s nutritional system lacks the necessary sustainability to support itself – especially in emergencies. Congress: incentivize local production in Puerto Rico through a culturally competent food sovereignty program!

Currently, Puerto Rico imports over 85% of its food. According to a survey conducted by George Washington University, 40% of Puerto Ricans experience food insecurity. After the next Hurricane is too late. Congress must repurpose USDA agricultural funding to incentivize local production on Puerto Rican land. This should be an essential ingredient in the transition from the NAP block grant to SNAP, which we also support.

Puerto Rico is much too vulnerable to any climatological or geopolitical event that disrupts our food supply chain. Increased nutritional assistance funding could stay on the island if Congress incentivized local agricultural production.

I stand with Puerto Rican advocates, groups, and elected representatives showing their support for this program. We are calling on you to include language in the 2023 Farm Bill that reprograms all USDA agricultural programmatic and grant funding to be strictly devoted to local farms, community agricultural trusts, and the University of Puerto Rico as part of the transition from NAP to SNAP. These programs need to be conducted in Puerto Rican Spanish to guarantee that all eligible farmers can access the benefits they are entitled to in a culturally competent manner.

Thank you.