ABOUT US

We integrate professionals from various disciplines to identify native and naturalized ingredients from our immediate surroundings, in order to preserve and propagate them.

Raimundo Espinoza

Founder and Executive Director for Conservación ConCiencia. 

He has extensive experience in coral reef conservation and management and has closely collaborated with commercial fishers, local NGOs, and Governments across the Caribbean and Latin America in creating unique opportunities to further conservation actions on the ground and sea. Conservación ConCiencia is a Puerto Rico based non-profit organization dedicated to environmental research and conservation that promotes sustainable development by working in collaboration with communities, NGOs, governments, academia and the private sector.

 

Antonio Muñiz

Cervecería del Callejón

He began brewing beers at home by 2005 while doing a Master's degree in Sociology at the University of Colorado-Denver. But it was not around 5 years ago that he focused and made the move to "all grain brewing" or processing using only 1 grain (barley, wheat, rye, corn, etc). He worked for 2 years at BarleyHaven.com, an online and physical store that sold beer products. This experience and having been part of a beer club gave him the opportunity to voluntarily help in several breweries. The combination of these two experiences helped him acquire certain knowledge that practically helps to develop beer recipes. One of his recipes, “Yellow Sky Saison”, was selected as “Best in Show” in a competition organized by Joyride Brewing of Edgewater, CO. After that, Joyride invited him to make 10 Barrels of this beer in September 2017, and it was served both in his taproom and in others in the area. At the moment, he is developing a 3-barrel brewery in Old San Juan, Cervecería del Callejón.

 

Cruz M. Ortiz-Cuadra

Historian and renowned specialist in the subject of the history of food

He is the author of the book Puerto Rico en la Olla: ¿Somos aún lo que comimos? (2006), publication awarded by the Puerto Rico PEN, and Eating Puerto Rico: A History of Food, Culture and Identity (2013). Founder of the interdisciplinary study group on Food Intelligence food, and independent consultant in food studies. In 2018 he was incorporated as a (Académico de Número) Number Scholar to the Puerto Rican Academy of History. He is a retired professor at the University of Puerto Rico, Humacao Campus and currently serves as a guest professor in the Interdisciplinary Studies program of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus. In addition, he belongs to the Board of Directors of the Visit Rico organization.

 

Mildred Cortés
Agricultural economist 
She has experience as a leader in research projects related to production costs, marketing of agricultural products, agricultural budgets, agricultural projections, and analysis of agricultural companies and perspectives. Apart from that, she’s also a collaborator in research projects with related topics. Author of arbitrated articles in the Journal of the University of Puerto Rico, other non-arbitrated journals and newspaper articles related to the agricultural sector. Currently, she is a member of the Boards of Directors of National and International Professional Organizations and is a presenter of the podcast, “Desde la EEA”.