A Lesson on Sugarcane
Much to the surprise of everyone watching the Superbowl half time show, the “grass bush” props were people wearing costumes. The bushes weren’t just any grass, they were sugarcane. This one crop illustrates the downfall of Puerto Rico’s local food sovereignty. Colonial forces replaced Puerto Rico’s small, biodiverse farming operations with large-scale mono-cropping that focused on commodities for export, namely sugarcane. While the Island previously practiced self-sufficient food farming, over half of the nation’s jobs shifted into agriculture for foreign companies which paid little to nothing.
In the 1940s, the United Stated transitioned the agriculture economy towards development and tourism with Operation Bootstrap. The federal initiative caused a movement away from rural farmland towards factories in cities. Since the citizens no longer had the farmland to grow their own food, they were forced into reliance on American imports. Under the Jones Act passed in 1920, both Puerto Rico and Hawaii are still forced to pay exorbitant prices to import food from the mainland United States. Since the ships have to be 100% American and there is little to no competition, Puerto Rican citizens have to pay a yearly premium between $367 million to $537 million for food and beverage.