Word: islander
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Despite rich soil and an extended Caribbean growing season, Puerto Rico has not managed to produce enough food to sustain itself since the U.S. Army seized the island from Spain in 1898. Almost 70% of the commonwealth's food is imported; the government spends $1.2 billion a year buying groceries from abroad for its 3.3 million citizens. Local officials have tried without much success to stimulate food production. Though the commonwealth has spent $60 million to develop rice farming, only 3,000 acres have been brought into production...
...solvency. Critics charged that instead of concentrating on popular products like honeydew melons, peppers and tomatoes, April-Agro grew too many other crops, including plantains and cabbage. Demel counters that he has created a new export market for Puerto Rican produce. In 1979-80, when April-Agro began, the island grew only about 3,600 tons of tomatoes a year, valued at just $1.4 million; hardly any of the crop was fit for export. But in the six months ending in May of this year, exports reached 4,150 tons and sold for $2.6 million...
...both struggling under a legacy of neglect for agriculture that began with Operation Bootstrap in the 1950s, when the commonwealth began steering its economy away from almost total dependence on sugar cane toward a more diversified industrial base in electronics and light manufacturing. Some observers believe that the island's agriculture is still wedded psychologically to sugar and is not truly interested in any other crop. Says Fernando Santiago, operator of a 600-acre farm in Santa Isabel: "Agriculture doesn't believe in vegetables...
...untimely death, it seemed suspiciously well timed. Last September, while awaiting sentencing on a federal extortion conviction and just days before he was to be indicted on fraud charges, former New Jersey State Senator David Friedland was reported to have drowned in a scuba-diving accident near Grand Bahama Island. Last week the missing politico's attorney received a phone call with a taped message: "I am alive and in fear for my life," it began. Friedland hinted that he had evidence of other possible crimes, implying that he might cut a deal with authorities...
...same day, ironically, another display of air power sent a more chilling message to the region. For the 40th time in four months, Iraqi Mirage F1-S jets dropped a payload of bombs on Kharg Island, where Iran loads 85% of its oil onto tankers for export. The Iraqi pummeling closed Kharg for three days; on Friday, Iraq claimed that another attack had caused a fire at the facility. The assaults were part of a pattern of escalation in the five-year Iran-Iraq war that has already cost thousands of lives. By repeatedly attacking Kharg, the Iraqis hope...