La Tierra de Borikén is a documentary by José M. Umpirre.
At the risk of self-promotion criticism, I submit to what is usually my space, the text presented by my friend Jorge Escudero Franceschini in the premiere of the documentary La Tierra de Borikén. The reaction of a farmer in good faith. The reasons why I give up space are best explained in his writing:
Seeing La Tierra Borikén does not leave us indifferent; it shakes us, shows us with rawness our greatest paradox: we live on a fertile island, blessed by the sun and rain, but we import about 95% of what we consume. This alarming food vulnerability is not a geographical accident; it is the result of a colonial and monoculture model that historically prioritized asphalt and economic dependence over our land.
However, in the face of the crisis, the response of our people has not been resignation, but resistance. And that resistance is sown today. Agroecology in Puerto Rico is not a simple agricultural fashion or a cultivation technique; it is a political, social and economic survival project.
To understand its impact on our archipelago, we must differentiate it from traditional or industrial agriculture. Industrial agriculture poisons the soil with agrochemicals, displaces communities and seeks immediate profit. Agroecology, on the other hand, is a science, a practice and a social movement.
In Puerto Rico, it is based on three fundamental pillars:
Respect for biodiversity: It is grown in polycultures, imitating nature, associating plants that protect each other and conserving our Creole seeds.
Social justice: Recognizing that the land must be in the hands of those who work it. It promotes fair trade and gender equity, led largely by women and young people returning to the countryside.
Our ancestral memory: It rescues the knowledge of our Taíno and African ancestors, who already understood the sacred relationship with Mother Earth long before the term “sustainability” was invented.
Recent events like Hurricane Maria have shown that supermarkets empty in a matter of days when supply chains fail.
Recent events in our history, from Hurricane Maria to the current inflationary crisis, have shown that supermarkets empty in a matter of days when supply chains fail. In those moments of darkness, who responded first? It was agro-ecological projects and community farms that opened their doors to feed the people.
Community science has shown that agroecological farms in Puerto Rico resist climate onslaught much better. Its soils, rich in organic matter, absorb water from floods better, and its diverse crops prevent the total loss suffered by monocultures. Agroecology is literally our shield against climate change.
Today, thanks to the inspiration of documentaries like the one we just saw, Land of Borikén, the Puerto Rican agroecological movement is more alive than ever. We see it in initiatives throughout the island: from the mountains of Adjuntas and Utuado, to the urban gardens in Santurce and the struggles for land in the south.
But farmers can’t do it alone. Food sovereignty is a collective responsibility. We need public policies that protect our agricultural land from real estate speculation. We need to support local agricultural markets.
Sowing in Puerto Rico is an act of decolonization.
I close with a reflection: sowing in Puerto Rico is an act of decolonization. Every Creole seed that germinates is a resounding “no” to dependence and a vibrant “yes” to our self-determination.
Supporting agroecology is ensuring that future generations can continue.
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Copyright 2026 by José M. Umpierre and Jorge Escudero Franceschini .