FOCUS
As a biologist and environmental planner from Puerto Rico, Carol wants to contribute to the food sovereignty of her country. Recent unprecedented and “fast-track” land use policy deregulation in Puerto Rico will be documented and detailed in her research, centering the perspective of local food producers. With her dissertation, Carol plans to promote effective, equitable, and sustainable food and land use policies informed by farmers on the ground, particularly those practicing non-extractive farming, such as agroecology. By working over the last decade with agroecological farmers, Carol learned how the lack of access to fertile land and resources burdens small scale agroecological farmers and increases food system vulnerability in Puerto Rico. In turn, these burdens and vulnerabilities have made healthy food production even more challenging. Her dissertation will document how policy impacts agroecological farmers’ networks and how they can inform land use policies to better serve them.
MORE ABOUT CAROL
Born in Puerto Rico, Carol has supported agroecological projects at K-12 schools. Through her action-research she has supported transformation of abandoned and underused lots. Now a PhD student pursuing a degree in Urban and Regional Planning at SUNY-UB, she researches how land use policies, agroecology, and culture of health supports food sovereignty.
