Agriculture Left Out of Recovery Conversation, Farmer Says as Officials Cite Need for Water, Storage and Infrastructure

With Friday’s Economic Development Summit focusing on the territory’s recovery projects, workforce needs and energy future, St. Croix farmer Dale Browne urged officials to confront what he said remains a persistent omission from discussions about resilience: local food production. Mr. Browne, co-founder of Sejah Farms on St. Croix, said agriculture continues to receive less attention than other sectors, even as the Virgin Islands discusses long-term economic development and self-sufficiency. “We continue to talk about oil energy. We even go to education, but one sector that is always and oftentimes omitted is local food production,” Mr. Browne said. For him, agriculture is “given less of a thought” during conversations on resilience. The summit was branded as a forum to leverage opportunities for economic development as the territory manages $25 million in recovery projects. But Mr. Browne argued that agriculture must be part of any serious conversation about resilience, particularl...