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103greets me at the gate—an inexplicable but not entirely un-attractive green botanical V painted down the middle ofher face. Tulasi shows me where neem and breadfruit treesonce divided her land from the road, their disappearancedepriving her crops of shade. Still, it’s impossible not to seehow many more birds flock to Tulasi’s moringa and bananagroves than to neighbors’ backyards, how many more beesbuzz in flowers, and how healthy her curving spirals of holybasil and tarragon, aloe and mint make the land. Her littleshop sells a homegrown, Ayurvedic version of adobo madewith her own turmeric and local sea salt. There is moringa forsale by the bunch, and curry leaves. I’m struck by the hope-fulness of the hugelkultur beds—deep garden plots madefrom fallen trees—which are already thick with pumpkinsand sweet potatoes.Over a final dinner with Rodríguez Besosa at Cuevas’s1919, inside the Vanderbilt, I note that women seem to beleading this movement. “In terms of activists inside thefarming movement, at least half of them are women,” Ro-dríguez Besosa says. “And more than half the farmers I workwith are.”``````FOOD REVOLUTIONARYTara Rodríguez Besosa is among those leading farm-recoveryefforts. Céline top. Marni skirt. Soko earrings. Hair, Adam Szabó;makeup, Caoilfhionn Gifford. Photographed by Ronan McKenzie.Sittings Editor: Yohana Lebasi. Details, see In This Issue.``````CONTINUED ON PAGE 125