Sister Coop Update: The Impact of Hurricane Maria

Nelson Alvarez Febles, Puerto Rican agroecologist, food activist and author spoke on June 22nd in Hardwick, VT about the many ongoing efforts to promote food sovereignty, small farms, and agroecology as important strategies for recovery and resilience in the face of climate disruptions such as Hurricanes Irma and Maria.  Nelson serves on the Board of Cooperativa Orgánica Madre Tierra, Buffalo Mountain’s Sister Coop in San Juan.   As part of his presentation, Nelson also shared some before and after pictures from the farm of one of our Sister Coop members.  Click the link to view the photos.

Looking out the farmhouse window one day before the storms.
The day after Hurricane Maria passed by from the same window. Note that you can now see the trunks of the trees. So many leaves were blown from trees that some crops briefly benefited from nature-made mulch. The brown patch right of center is a landslide area.
Six months after. Some foliage is coming back. The landslide area is still bare. The bamboo forest that was near the bottom left of the photo has not grown back.

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