Puerto Rican farmers should have the opportunity to access USDA programs in Spanish

 This column was a product of the 2023 Public Voices fellow on the Climate Crisis with the Op-Ed Project in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. It was publcihed in Yale Climate Communications on August 10, 2023.

For more than a month, I’ve been trying to get a hold of someone at the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency’s Puerto Rico state office. Someone told me they passed my message to the director. I also sent emails to various employees, with no response.

I wanted to get in touch with the office after hearing from a farmer that most of the agency’s paperwork is in English and that agents are hard to reach. My experience was a case in point — an example of how hard it is for farmers in Puerto Rico to get help preparing for climate change in the language that they speak.

I wanted to get in touch with the office after hearing from a farmer that most of the agency’s paperwork is in English and that they are hard to reach. My experience was a case in point — an example of how hard it is for U.S. farmers in Puerto Rico to get help preparing for climate change in the language that they speak.

“I am lucky that my son is young and understands the internet. Imagine other farmers who do not have that help,” an older Puerto Rican farmer told me about trying to navigate the programs and opportunities from both the USDA’s Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service.

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