MattThaKing’s Recent Comments

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  Para que sepas

  Sorry, I forgot to mention that I was there last spring (2007). Also I forgot to mention that the people have no political freedom (Raul is changing that poco a poco, but we'll see how far he takes it), poverty is still ubiquitous, their economy anemic and increasing inequally distributed and dependent on tourism (which will disappear with the end of cheap oil). Our group was definitely monitored and one of the security guards at our complex was fired because he had, according to the government document he showed us, "forged unacceptable relationships with foreigners" (i.e. he was friendly with us and sometimes pestered us to use our computers to burn him porn, but we damn well didn't rat him out).On The U.S. media discover how food production works without access to cheap oil posted 1 year, 5 months ago 12 Responses

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  ¡De pinga asere, pero ya tú sabes, no es fácil!

  I actually lived in La Habana for four months on a study abroad program through Harvard, and while my focus there wasn't on urban agriculture I lived just a few blocks away from one of the many urban farms. The Cuban agriculture system is truly amazing as they managed to recoup around 1,000 calories in the Cuban diet after the fall of the USSR (went from around 1500-1600 per person per day in 1994 to 2,500 or so by 2000), much of it through fruit and vegetables, much of it organic, and much of it local and non-mechanized, though a lot of it from imports. I just want to point out a few issues with idealizing the Cuban agriculture system. Firstly, you fail to mention here the fact noted in the CBS article that 80% of Cuba's food is imported. The United States is actually the nation's largest current agricultural trading partner for the past 5 years. In 2000 Congress passed the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSRA) due to heavy lobbying by the agricultural sector. Cuba didn't actually start buying from us until 2001 since they were so insulted by the fact that the US demanded that everything be paid in cash up front, but after Hurricane Michelle ravaged the island in 2001 they decided to start and have been buying about $350 million dollars worth of food from the US since (mostly wheat, corn, soy, chicken, and powdered milk, but also processed foods like Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and Heinz ketchup). And that's only about ¼ of their total food imports. This shows that while the urban farm system has definitely increased access to fresh produce, it is by no means a cure-all. Cuba just doesn't have the hydrological resources or climate to grow certain staple products, and I'm sorry, but not everyone can be a fruitarian.

  With regards to your comment on the salary of these urban farmers, you need to make clear that the average salary of between $15 and $20 dollars a month is what is paid to workers officially by the government. It is absolutely impossible for even the most thrifty Cuban to survive on that and so you have the phenomenon of Cuban's stealing from their jobs or having second, third, or fourth jobs to make extra cash "por la izquierda" (lit. on the left, but translates best as on the side). Most jobs only require the employee to work two 36 hour shifts per week so there is ample time to "resolver" (find other sources of money), as the handyman at our apartment complex would say, "I'm done working for Fidel for today, now I'm going to work for myself and my kids" as he went to his workshop to make furniture and other odds and ends to sell to friends. I talked to the farmers and they work about 5 days per week, so the average Cuban's real salary may be a lot closer to that $100-250 dollars per month for urban farmers cited by CBS.

  The Cuban agricultural story may be appealing to greens, and it should be, we absolutely have a lot to learn from them. Yet you should not make the mistake of saying that it is a silver bullet. Peak oil is a scary reality looming ahead of us and will require a lot more than urban gardening, especially since as some others have pointed out many place in the world don't have the climate or soil structure to make it possible on the Cuban scale.

  Check this out:

  http://www.fas.usda.gov/itp/cuba/CubaSituation0308.pdf

  PS You guys aren't hiring staff writers are you?On The U.S. media discover how food production works without access to cheap oil posted 1 year, 5 months ago 12 Responses