The story of Cuba's permaculturish revolution is captured well by this documentary:

http://www.powerofcommunity.org

Highly recommended.

Erik

The Orion Grassroots Network: 1,200+ grassroots groups working for conservation & more

It is impressive how Cubans managed to avoid starving when the hammer of a political peak oil came down. I've seen "The Power of Community" and spoken with people who have traveled in Cuba. It's been very hard and people lost a lot of weight - many died of starvation. There were, of course since it's humans we're talking about, political factors that made these changes more difficult. But they dug in and planted gardens and made it happen. This is much-needed proof that post-industrial people can, in fact, feed themselves.

I don't think that anyone (anyone would would be taken seriously, anyway) is suggesting that America take up a hereditary communist dictatorship. But Cuba's hardworking example of self-sufficiently, externally exposed as it may have been, should be inspiring to anyone who appreciates the perils of peak oil. Anyone denying those perils should feel free to starve for their principles.

Eat what you grow, grow what you eat

Wow, the US can be just like Cuba.  Growing all our food year round in flower boxes outside the apartment.   Like right now, here in Kent, WA the temperature in June is like...oh, 55F and dropping...so I could grow...what?  Wheat?  A pumpkin?  Winter squash?

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Americas/Cuba-CLIMATE. ...

Except in the mountains, the climate of Cuba is semitropical or temperate. The average minimum temperature is 21°C (70° F), the average maximum 27°C (81° F). The mean temperature at Havana is about 25°C (77°F). The trade winds and sea breezes make coastal areas more habitable than temperature alone would indicate.

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?

Nobody has all the answers. I think the best inspiration we can take from Cuba is to actually tackle the problems that come with Peak Oil instead of dodging them.

Eat what you grow, grow what you eat

I know a guy who lived for a summer on rice and beans plus some ground rodents he hunted (a pest at the ranch where he was living). This was during a period of great stoic asceticism in his life. He doesn't recommend it unless you need to for a little while as a retreat and focussing exercise. And not as a lifestyle.

There's only so many ways you can cook rice and beans. And no one should have to eat canned food from Eastern Europe. People need fruit, nuts, greens and lots of other variety besides their grains and legumes, even if they're not going to eat animal flesh.

We're not going to convince people to save the world by espousing simplicity. As McDonough says, people want life, they want sex, they want variety, they want children.

A McDonough koan: How many cherry blossoms does it take?

Eat what you grow, grow what you eat