Since the 1960s, The United States and Cuba have had a tumultuous relationship involving embargos, invasions, and a nuclear missile crisis, but in 2015, then President Barack Obama announced that formal diplomatic relationships between the two countries would resume. Obama's visit to Cuba was the first by a sitting president in 88 years, and it showed how little we know about our island neighbor. Despite being a mere 90 miles from the coast of Key West, Florida, pictures of Cuba show a country frozen in time with old Spanish-style architecture and antique automobiles. Although the embargo has stifled the island’s economic growth, it also allowed Cuba to progress where the U.S. has lagged. Cuba is one of the world’s most successful and promising examples of organic urban agriculture. But most impressive is that the Cuban people have orchestrated this agricultural renaissance with little use of genetically modified crops, petroleum-based fertilizers, or chemical pesticides. Here's the story.
Cuba’s Agricultural History
After the 1959 revolution, the Cuban government focused on agricultural exports, devoting 30 percent of the agricultural land to sugarcane production. As a result, Cubans became reliant on imports for most of their food supply. At this time, the country’s farming practices were similar to that of modern industrial agricultural systems: Farmers depended on inputs like fertilizer, pesticides, tractors, and fuel, all of which were provided by the Soviet Union. By the 1980, the quality of Cuban soil was declining and crop yields began to suffer. After the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989, Cuba was cast into economic chaos and could no longer import food necessary food supplies. As a result, their population lost around 30 percent of their daily caloric intake. The flow of cheap Soviet oil needed to manufacture synthetic fertilizers, fuel tractors, and feed the country, dried up.
An Organic Revolution in Cuba
Cuba’s reversion to organic agricultural practices came was a necessity, not a choice. With the help of scientists, farmers adopted a variety of agro ecological techniques designed to avoid the use of chemical inputs. Oil-less tractors were replaced by oxen, petroleum-based fertilizers were swapped for green manure, and biodynamic pesticide practices replaced chemical pesticides. Cuban politicians also implemented a wide range of agrarian reform. Politicians broke up large government landholdings and “inefficient state companies”, and they redistributed parcels of arable land to small farming groups. These individual farmers were encouraged to market their produce as group, effectively replacing absentee landowners and a feudal like agrarian system. Through the mid-1990s, 78,000 farms were given in usufruct, which means that people could plant and profit from the land, but did not own it. The government’s support of small farmers positively impacted yields and soil health, and showed to the world that chemical inputs and mono-cultures, although important, are not appropriate or ideal for every area. From 1996-2005, Cuba’s food production grew at an annual rate of 4.2 percent, compared to a flat growth rate for the rest of the region which experienced no growth.
From Organics to Urban Agriculture
Cuba’s approach to agriculture wasn’t based on organic methods of farming alone. The country also utilized large swaths of urban space -- from balconies and apartment rooftops to backyards and underdeveloped lots. The city of Havana provides a perfect example of this reimagined urban landscape. One farmer raises forty guinea pigs, six chickens, two turkeys, and more than a hundred rabbits -- on his roof. His sixty-eight meter system utilizes a “closed loop permaculture principles,” which involves repurposing the waste from animals into fertilizer for vegetables. Havana has over a thousand similar small, urban livestock producers who sell their meat to local restaurants and markets. Since 1996, the number of urban farms has exploded, with over 300,000 currently operating 50,000 hectares (125,000 acres). These farms occupy 25 percent of the country’s farmland, but produce over 65 percent of its food. This success can be attributed to the immense top-down state support. The government operates dozens of subsidized agricultural stores, a number of compost locations, and also runs a variety of artisanal pesticide labs to develop new, non-chemical varieties.
The Numbers Don’t Lie - Cuba’s Agricultural Model is a Success
Before the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s food production and farmland were suffering. It was only after chemical pesticides were eliminated and the government increased their support for the small farming population, that yields began to rise. From 1988-2007 production of vegetables, roots, and tubers were up 145 percent, while bean production more than tripled. All of these gains were accomplished with a 70 percent decrease in pesticide use. Cuba went from a major food importer, to nearly food self-sufficient in less than 20 years. In 2003 Cuba only imported 16 percent of its food, most of which was livestock feed, mostly cereals, meat, and cooking oils, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization Commodity Balances. The island produces almost all of its own starchy roots, eggs, vegetables and fruit, and since 2007, Cuba’s population, on average, receives around 3,200 calories a day, the most in the Caribbean.
Does a Mended Relationship with the United States Threaten Cuba’s Agricultural Security?
Unfortunately, it might. Cuba’s agricultural system is facing pressure to shift towards an export based economy, the same path followed by a number of different countries in Central and South America. The United States wants to invest in Cuba’s agricultural sector and improve its efficiency through a reversion back to mechanized farming. This would include the reintroduction of chemical inputs, monoculture and farm concentration, as well as a likely adoption of a U.S-style diet centered around meat, dairy and processed foods. The “logic” here is that Cuba will need to provide an abundance of food for an impending U.S. tourism boom, which their current agricultural sector currently can’t support.
Interesting read 🙌🏽