Organic Farming Flourishes in Cuba, But Can It Survive Entry of US Agribusiness?
HAVANA TIMES – Over the past 25 years, Cuba has built a largely organic farming system out of necessity. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba lost its main supplier of fertilizers and pesticides.
What will the changing U.S.-Cuban relationship mean for Cuban farmers? We air a video report from a farm outside Havana produced by Democracy Now!’s Karen Ranucci and Monica Melamid. We also speak to filmmaker Catherine Murphy, who has studied Cuba’s agricultural system.
Here is a youtube video that shows why we don’t want U.S. companies selling pesticides and fertilizers in Cuba: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzSi0_EPmlU&list=PLURDA6V2nJzhukx-JEHYEZvL_HaRNbjXH&index=2
The answer: “Soylent Green!” Let’s hope we can do better than that! Actually, just as this type of farming is providing better jobs to those in Cuba (as seen by the snippet from the documentary on “Democracy Now,”) perhaps such labor-intensive farming can provide employment for the millions-upon-millions of U.S. workers (and retirees) displaced by N.A.F.T.A. and other “free trade” agreements. Seems like such employment is a much better alternative than working in the fast food industry or other such service sector jobs. Already, many urban farms are being established in the thousands of vacant lots in such cities as Detroit and Flint, Michigan.
I only eat organic foods so bravo and hopefully more to come. May a thousand pineapples bloom!
The quality of organically grown food is superior to mass produced agricultural goods, no doubt about it. The problem is that organics,by its very nature, is not scalable. How do you feed the billions on this earth that don’t have access to to your Vermont co-ops?
Here in Vermont the future for small scale organic farming is looking good. Although more expensive than the vegetables, poultry, dairy and meat grown by the large-scale industrial farms of Big Agra, nevertheless, more folks are willing to purchase at least part of their weekly groceries as certified organic, from coops, CSA’s, farmer’s markets, etc. A number of my daughter’s classmates and friends have gone into organic farming, and are successful. So far, definitely a niche market, but given the growing awareness of the relationship between health and the food we eat, this niche is growing.
It’s a simple matter of being able to produce enough food to feed the Cuban people. Organic food is all well and good, heck I go out of my way to buy it, but by its very nature trully “organic” food is limited in scope and not scalable. And despite all the fear mongoring GMOs and other mass produced crops appear to be safe. ….Or we could let people starve in the name of organic I suppose.
The organic farms are a miniscule fraction of the current agricultural profile. This puff piece is misleading.
Monsanto will Destroy CUBA Organic.
Cuba, Don’t let Evil Monsanto Poison your Organic Harvest!!!! I knew this was coming.