When a hurricane remapped a farm economy (2017)
At daybreak on September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall near Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, as a Category 4 storm with winds approaching 155 miles per hour. The blow to the U.S. territory’s agricultural sector was immediate and historic: government assessments in the weeks that followed estimated roughly 80% of the island’s crops were destroyed, with initial losses nearing $780 million.
Plantains, bananas, citrus, and coffee—cornerstones of Puerto Rico’s diversified farm economy—were shredded. Coffee, in particular, suffered multi‑year damage as wind and debris uprooted or snapped millions of trees, erasing years of capital investment and future harvests. Dairy farms struggled to operate without power, jeopardizing milk production and animal welfare. Poultry operations, fruit orchards, and vegetable growers faced structural damage, feed and input shortages, and a prolonged logistics crisis as roads and ports were restored.
Maria’s aftermath accelerated conversations—on the island and across U.S. agriculture—about hardening farm infrastructure, decentralizing power through renewable microgrids, building seedling and nursery capacity for perennial crops, and strengthening local supply chains so food and feed can move when centralized systems fail. The storm also catalyzed public and private replanting programs, especially in coffee, to restore tree stock with improved genetics and agronomic support.
A turning point for farm labor and the table grape industry (1965)
On September 20, 1965, Latino members of the National Farm Workers Association officially joined Filipino workers from the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee in what became known as the Delano grape strike. The AWOC had initiated the walkout earlier that month to protest low pay and poor conditions in California’s vineyards. By formally aligning on September 20, the two organizations transformed a local labor dispute into a national movement.
The strike and subsequent consumer boycott lasted nearly five years. It elevated farmworker rights into mainstream policy debates, forged interracial labor solidarity, introduced powerful nonviolent tactics to agricultural organizing, and—ultimately—delivered union contracts in 1970 that improved wages and working conditions for tens of thousands of grape workers. The alliance paved the way for the emergence of a unified farmworker organization that would continue to influence agricultural labor standards, pesticide safety rules, and collective bargaining in the fields.
The day Wall Street’s shutters rattled rural America (1873)
September 20, 1873, marked the extraordinary closure of the New York Stock Exchange for 10 days amid the Panic of 1873. The credit freeze and cascading railroad failures that followed rippled deep into the countryside. Farmers—often leveraged for land, equipment, and inputs—faced falling commodity prices and tightening credit at the very moment they needed operating capital.
As wheat, corn, and cotton prices sagged in the mid‑1870s, the downturn fueled agrarian activism. Organizations such as the Grange amplified calls to regulate grain elevators and railroads—gatekeepers between farm and market—culminating in the landmark “Granger laws” across several Midwestern states. The debates launched in the wake of the 1873 crisis would echo for decades, shaping the trajectory of agricultural regulation, infrastructure investment, and price discovery.
Why these moments still matter
Each of these September 20 milestones reshaped U.S. agriculture in ways that continue to be felt: disaster resilience and climate adaptation; dignity, safety, and bargaining power for farmworkers; and fair access to markets and credit for producers. Together, they underscore a core truth about the farm economy—what happens in the fields is inseparable from the systems around them, from weather and labor to finance and public policy.