Our agriculture team’s Karina Merced Arzola tells us about her experience with the Placita Agricola initiative and how you can be a part of food sovereignty in Puerto Rico.

Learn more about our experience with cows from horticulturist Katie ‘Mila’ Bullis!

In their essence, cows are beings that nourish the spaces they inhabit, and the other living beings they coexist with.

Let's have agroecological gardens in each of our schools! Places where children can coexist with the nature that surrounds them while practicing empathy towards their peers.

What has made Las Marías be known for the china dulce, above the other towns? The passion and love for this fruit has brought unity and opportunities for the community. Since the town's founding in 1872, the cultivation of the china dulce has been a key contributor to the development of the town’s economy and livelihood of the town’s people. However, in recent years it has actually been quite difficult to find oranges that are from Puerto Rico…

In a single handful of fertile soil, there are more living organisms than there are people living on the planet. I think it's fascinating how complex and vital soil is for sustaining life on planet Earth. It abounds in organic matter, mycorrhizae, arthropods, nematodes, bacteria, earthworms, fungi, plants and animals - all of which maintain a continuous cycle of nutrients. When the soil is healthy and biodiverse, it allows us to grow the food necessary for a healthy diet. However, the amount of fertile soil in Puerto Rico has been decreasing at an alarming rate.

It seems that every summer it is getting hotter and hotter. This year, we registered 109°F here at Plenitud PR. As farmers, we are directly feeling the intense heat! Did you know that as farmers, our risk of death from heat-related illness is 20 times that of the rest of the civilian workforce?

Everywhere we look in the natural world, we see connections and mutually beneficial relationships between plants, microorganisms, birds, insects, and animals. For example, the world-renowned soil biologist, Elaine Ingham, has helped to demonstrate that millions of microorganisms…

I learned to eat after I turned 25. Before that, I thought that anything that tasted good and satiated my hunger was food. I think that eating is one of the biggest human pleasures–in fact, when I was little, I would say that my favorite part of the school day was lunch time.

In our modern world, we have access to so much information at our fingertips; we can know about any person, place, or thing in just minutes. But “knowing” about something through reading and listening often leaves gaps in the learning process. Hands-on, experiential learning allows us to develop a more complete and in-depth understanding of a topic or concept.

Vermicomposting is a method of composting that uses worms to convert food waste into nutrient-dense castings. Not only are their castings rich with minerals and micronutrients such as magnesium, calcium, and nitrates, but the worm's skin produces a mucus that kills toxins and bad bacteria like E. coli, creating a scrumptious and nutritious compost smoothie for your plants.

Right now more than ever, human beings are becoming aware of our deep interconnectedness, of the myriad ways that we belong to and depend on each other for health, happiness, and, ultimately, survival. Through the global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the challenges facing our society as a result of broken governmental systems, and the dramatic and worsening global climate crisis, we are seeing the ways in which our collective ways of thinking and behaving affect every living being on this planet.

If you want to create or improve a garden at your home or farm, the step of designing raised garden beds is an important one! Here we will share with you 3 different planting bed design types, as well as their unique benefits and dimensions so you can build your own. This information comes from Plenitud PR’s most recent book, ¡Siembra Boricua!