Puerto Rican entrepreneur Tara Rodriguez has brought the island its first eco-conscious food store.

Four years ago, Rodriguez, 30, began an organic farmers market and El Departamento de la Comida (Department of Food), a mini-grocery that aims to change the way Puerto Rico eats, according to EFE. Currently, Puerto Rico imports over 80 percent of its food.

"It's something that society is crying out for," Rodriguez said. "A lot of us normal people are tired of going to the supermarket and buying fruit and vegetables that don't taste of anything."

Rodriguez studied architecture for seven years in New York, but nowadays her studies take her to different farms and land plots where she hunts for ground that can nurture vegetables.

"We want to eat better without damaging the environment or promoting price wars that hurt farmers," Rodriguez said. "Ecological agriculture is simply the kind that doesn't rely on toxic agrichemicals. It combats pests in a natural way, grows a variety of crops on the same fields, provides fair pay for the farmer and leaves the land cleaner and healthier."

El Departamento de la Comida is located in San Juan, a working class neighborhood. Anyone who enters the grocery store is welcome to speak with those working on the project to learn more about eating natural food that doesn't hurt nature.

"Customers take their time," the project leader explained. "They look at everything. They're interested in knowing where the mangoes were grown that they take away with them, and we tell them that the farmer who grew the zucchinis they're going to buy is called Manolo and he delivered them here this morning."

Customers can also order "harvest boxes" for $30 a week. The service delivers crates of food harvested that week to patrons. The harvest boxes were inspired by customers telling El Departamento de Comida that they didn't know how or didn't have time to cook some of the available produce.

According to Rodriguez, land on her island is easy to obtain, "if not given away" thanks to the large amount of young people leaving Puerto Rico.

"Whoever wants land here can get it," she explained. "Even in the city there are many plots of land that are abandoned, and many residents are taking advantage of the fact to plant urban vegetable gardens."

Rodriguez says that Puerto Rico's tropical climates allow for up to four harvests per year.
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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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