Political Quotes

“I stood in a field where 20,000 saplings ready to be planted drowned before they ever had a chance to grow. I saw thousands of coffee trees lost, including heritage trees planted by the original owners generations ago, gone in a single storm. I saw banana fields buried in water and silt. I saw fruit contaminated and roots rotting in the ground. I saw livestock lost, mature animals and their young, newly born, swept away, with only empty pens left. Even where crops are still standing, farmers don't know if they are safe. They are unsure of what flood waters carried into their soil and are unsure if their land will produce food again next season or the season after that. This is not just damage. This is devastation. These are livelihoods hanging in the balance. Farmers told me how they tried to fight back, saving seedlings by hand, rushing to harvest whatever they could before it was gone, and building up pens in the middle of the storm just to keep their animals from drowning. These aren't just fields as we all know here. These are fields that feed families.”