By The Star Staff
The United Front for the Defense of the Lajas Valley called on the candidates for governor to make a real commitment to protecting agricultural lands in Puerto Rico, which face multiple pressures to the detriment of food security.
Front spokesman Alfredo Vivoni indicated that for the fifth consecutive four-year period the organization made an analysis that it published on its blog GranAmbiente.com to guide the electorate on legislative performance and, this year, they added an evaluation of the promises of the candidates for governor.
“I urge the electorate to read our analysis before going to the polls with the objective of knowing the record of who is committed to the protection of agricultural lands, who is doing things correctly, and who is not,” Vivoni said.
Under the title “Agricultural Lands: Analysis of Public Policy and Government Programs,” the public can see the initial analysis of government programs and legislative measures, as well as access links to specific topics in the sections For, Against, Featured, Schools and Curricula, and Transfers.
In the entry Comments on Political Platforms, the Front analyzed what the government programs of the parties specifically say about the protection of agricultural lands, the Land Use Plan, and the adoption of Queremos Sol’s renewable energy proposal as the most suitable alternative to proposals to build industrial-scale projects on agricultural lands or lands.
“There is a void concerning protecting our lands regarding what the New Progressive Party [NPP], the Popular Democratic Party [PDP], and the Dignity Project propose,” Vivoni said. “The proposals of the NPP and the PDP, promoting industrial-scale energy projects, are a real threat to the best agricultural lands in Puerto Rico. The program of the Alliance (made up of the Citizen Victory Movement and the Puerto Rican Independence Party) recognizes the Land Use Plan as the main planning tool, advocates for the protection of agricultural lands, and welcomes the Queremos Sol renewable energy proposal.”
“[NPP gubernatorial candidate] Jenniffer González’s platform does not have a section on agriculture,” the spokesperson said.
He said the only thing they found related to agriculture was the following statement: “support the construction of large-scale green energy projects.” This is understood to imply their location on agricultural lands or lands of ecological value.
Vivoni affirmed that in PDP gubernatorial candidate Jesús Manuel Ortiz’s platform, the organization found the following proposal: “Expedited processing for large-scale renewable energy projects,” which he said echoes the same threat noted regarding the NPP proposal.
In the case of the Dignity Project candidate for governor Javier Jiménez Pérez’s program, the party proposes to increase “the productivity of existing farms instead of expanding cultivated areas.” Vivoni said this implies that they are not interested in increasing the number of agricultural reserves or adding protections to agricultural land such as the Agricultural Reserve of the North Coast, which has not been approved.
“This reserve has been attempted to be realized since 2005 and it has never been achieved,” he said. “We recognize that the Planning Board delimited this Reserve in 2016 and the Supreme Court validated it in 2019. The Planning Board’s website includes this Reserve.”
Vivoni said people will also find information on legislative initiatives that liberalize the conditions for protected agricultural land.
“The 55 measures on liberalization, although most of them have not been approved, aim to free up agricultural lands that the government processed,” he pointed out. “The conditions intended to be eliminated were established when selling them or granting them in usufruct, for ‘undivided and zoning as agricultural use’ as established by Law No. 107 of 1974. Approving these measures would represent the fragmentation of agricultural lands in Puerto Rico.”
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