St. Croix welcomed back its annual celebration and showcase of the island’s farming and livestock industry Saturday with an opening ceremony for the 2026 Agriculture and Food Fair at the Rudolph Shulterbrandt Agricultural Complex.
This year’s theme — “Agriculture and Technology: An Ideal Mix in 2026” — was exemplified by the University of the Virgin Islands’ Thalia Stanley, a former computer science student whose interest in agriculture was stoked by a job with the university’s horticulture department.
“Being there, I got to experience a lot of hands-on stuff and got to experience passionate people around me about agriculture, and it started to fuel my passion for agriculture,” she told the Source. “So the more I got into it, the more I started thinking: man, like, I really love this. I feel really passionate about it, I feel really connected to it — and to this island.”
Stanley said she hopes to combine her background in computer science with horticulture.
“An example of something small that we could do is data. So I know here, the Department of Agriculture — it’s not exactly databased,” Stanley said, adding that good data is essential for things like securing grants. “You can make so much growth just based off data. So that’s something simple — that I can bring computer literacy with horticulture and make a change with that as well.”
During an opening ceremony Saturday morning, V.I. Agriculture Commissioner Louis Petersen Jr. said the territory needs to invest in people like Stanley. Describing the annual celebration of St. Croix’s agricultural sector as an opportunity to reflect on the work of his department, Petersen highlighted recent accomplishments like the construction of two hundred-thousand-gallon cisterns in Estate Bordeaux, the development of the Farmers Market Nutrition Program, and the distribution of 2,500 fruit trees to residents across the Virgin Islands.
Delegate Stacey Plaskett said this year’s theme couldn’t be more relevant.
“We stand at a crossroads where century-old farming wisdom is meeting cutting-edge technology and innovation,” she said, outlining the need for precision irrigation systems to conserve water, mobile phone applications to connect farmers with consumers, soil sensors, and renewable energy solutions. “Technology is opening doors for Virgin Islands agriculture, but technology, as you’ve heard, is a tool — it’s not a replacement.”
The 2026 Agriculture and Food Fair will continue through Monday.
