Puerto Rico Food Production By Kim Matcovich I spoke with my cultural friend, Alicia, about food production in Puerto Rico. [Write an essay, so don't need this] She told me that she knew that rum, coffee, and sugar are major productions of her native country. [look up info on Panama] I asked if she had ever visited a farm there, and she stated she used to live on one. Alicia used to live on a cattle farm. When I first looked at the assignment for this essay, I thought of food production more as crops, like fruits and vegetables. The more that I think about it though, a cattle farm definitely is food production. To find out how accurate Alicia's recollection of food production is, we looked up some information on the Internet. We found that she is correct. The climate is tropical in Puerto Rico. Therefore, sugarcane was the chief agricultural product in Puerto Rico for a long time. Livestock and dairy production have surpassed sugarcane in importance. Other leading crops are tobacco, coffee, and fruits. Rum production in Puerto Rico began in the early 1500's. After World War II, Puerto Rico passed the Mature Spirits Act. This Act set down strict laws for rum production. It requires that the rum age at least one full year before being sold. The Act also insures that no neutral spirits or other products are introduced into the rum. These rules make Puerto Rican rum one of the finest in the world. I was impressed my Alicia's knowledge of food production in her native country. I know that if someone were to ask me the same question about the U.S., I probably would not know the correct answers to them.