UN Sees Decreased Food Supply in Cuba
HAVANA TIMES — The impact Hurricane Sandy on almost 250,000 acres of crops in Cuba could have dire consequences for agricultural production on the island, according to a UN report made known on Wednesday, reported the AFP news service.
“The impact on the farm sector will have a major impact on the rest of the country due to the importance of the affected areas in the production of major crops for the whole island,” read the “Status Report No. 7,” to which the news agency gained access.
“About 239,638 acres of various crops have been affected. Sugarcane is the crop most affected, followed by plantains, banana plants and major crops,” added the report, although the government has not delivered an overall balance of the damage.
Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura “maintained that one of the issues of greatest concern is ensuring the people food over the coming months,” the Granma newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Despite major efforts to distribute land and increase farm production, Cuba still imports over half of its basic foods.
All Cuba needs to do, to solve her food production problems, is to follow the example of tiny Denmark in the late 1800s. Give the peasants full title to their lands, and allow them to produce for the market, and they will make the country rich in five years.
Or, keep on with the moronic institution of usufruct, plus bureaucratic state control, and watch monopoly socialist state power die of its own sectarianism.
RE: the US blockade not being lifted until Cuba becomes ” more democratic”.
US toleration for far less democratic countries – Bahrain and Saudi Arabia stand out at the moment – give the lie to this lame excuse. We are getting a non-stop view at the moment of what ‘democracy’ looks like in your country. Even your own citizens are sick of it. Seen the viral Youtube video of the little girl? Insisting on imposing this abomination on Cuba qualifies as a war crime.
US ‘goalposts’ are notoriously movable. It Cuba met this one, another one would be found – women’s rights, patent infringements, animal cruelty. Your country makes excuses up to suit its oppressive behaviour. Cubans are not fools.
RE: writing letters and nothing will change.
But you have to try dear ‘Moses’. Isn’t that what you are always counselling?
RE: the blockade being ” codified federal law.”
Unlike the 10 commandments, laws can be changed. Even your Constitution can be amended. You are full of lame excuses. As my father-in-law was fond of saying, ‘the road to hell is paved with excuses’.
RE: Obama ‘freeing up’ relief funds of $30 billion.
Not likely. The entire cost of Sandy is an estimated $50 billion. Reuters says the immediate spending capacity of FEMA is $7.8 billion if their entire budget is freed up to be used. Americans may see more relief than usual due to election jockeying but the money so far is going primarily to well off areas – New Jersey and along the east coast.
Al Jazeera this morning interviewed a fireman, one of the last to get out of the World Trade Towers. He lives on Staten Island and his house was flooded, had no power or water and is uninhabitable. No one was helping him.
Yours is a simplistic view of how the real world works. Simply put, lifting the US embargo against Cuba MUST be preceded by actions taken by the Cuban dictatorship to become more democratic. I could write letters until I am blue in the face and nothing would change. The embargo is codified federal law, not some whim of the Cuban mafia to be waived after a letter campaign. BTW, President Obama has freed up more than $30 billion in relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy.
So we can expect you to pause in your daily posting of comments to write a letter to your government urging it to drop its economic blockade of Cuba for humanitarian reasons?
Silly me. I must have been dreaming. The US won’t even look after its own citizens for humanitarian reasons. There wouldn’t be enough money left to pay for campaign expenses.
…and to think that Cuba just lifted the waiver which allowed foreigners to bring food into the country untaxed. Seems a little short-sighted to the money-grubbers now I bet.