The Organic Revolution
With Fidel Castro in the news, it seems fitting to highlight this article from the UK Independent about Cuba's agricultural revolution -- territory covered last year in an excellent Harper's article by Bill McKibben but worth revisiting.
The story in a nutshell: After the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, Cuba's subsidies vanished and the island was left to feed itself -- literally. Suddenly, the caloric intake of the average Cuban fell by half and Cuba's political isolation left it with nowhere to turn but inward. The country began farming in a whole different fashion, with all food production now aimed strictly at meeting domestic demand. By necessity, the new agricultural system was largely organic and built around small farms and distributed (and, it should be noted, enforced) labor.
Whatever else you might say about Castro's Cuba, this agricultural revolution has been a success. As the newspaper reports:
The story in a nutshell: After the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, Cuba's subsidies vanished and the island was left to feed itself -- literally. Suddenly, the caloric intake of the average Cuban fell by half and Cuba's political isolation left it with nowhere to turn but inward. The country began farming in a whole different fashion, with all food production now aimed strictly at meeting domestic demand. By necessity, the new agricultural system was largely organic and built around small farms and distributed (and, it should be noted, enforced) labor.
Whatever else you might say about Castro's Cuba, this agricultural revolution has been a success. As the newspaper reports:
Annual calorie intake now stands at about 2,600 a day, while UNFAO estimates that the percentage of the population considered undernourished fell from 8 per cent in 1990-2 to about 3 per cent in 2000-2. Cuba's infant mortality rate is lower than that of the US, while at 77 years life expectancy is the same.
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