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What will happen to Cuba's sustainable [although not perfect] Agroecology ???

Since reading glowing News Reports lately over the thawing of cold war relations between the United States and Cuba where both sides will soon be holding hands singing "Oh Lord Kumbaya" together, I personally find more interesting news is emerging that is shedding light on Cuba's Agroecology & the benefits discovered by peasant farmers being forced to adapt to the abrupt end of Soviet era dependence with regards synthetic fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides and fungicides. They basically had to fend for themselves after communism's collapse and revert back to a more localized group of numerous smaller farms working together in urban farming for the benefit of their fellow citizens.

When I think of Cuba, I think of older 1940s & 50s automobiles and trucks, 1930s era Art Deco styled buildings , etc. While I'm not overly interested in the ideological and philosopical historical squabblings of both sides, I am fascinated by the successes of peasant farmers who've been forced out of necessity to be more self-reliant, creative and innovative because they were forced to go that direction. So my interest lays more with something the peasant farmers have done in Cuba. They call them, Campesino-to-Campesino, which means farmer to farmer. A sort of cooperative infrastructure on a social scale. From the 1990s, out of shear necessity “Agroecology Revolution" was developed as a means of supplying food to their nation. Cuba’s farmers shifted to organic fertilizers, traditional crops and animal breeds, diversified farming with crop rotations, and non-toxic pest controls emphasizing the use of beneficial plants and insects. And it's that use of beneficial plants and insects that intrigue me the most. I've noticed this in a number of photographs posted over the internet where numerous biodiverse flowering perennials are grown which in turn attract not only polinators, but also important predatory insects. Below is one example photo of one of the neighbourhood urban farms with beneficial plants grown in among and around crop plants.

There was an article in the online journal of "The Conservsation" which highlighted the potential dangers to Cuban agriculture as a consequence of more normalized relations between the United States and Cuba. First the history they referenced about how Cuba developed agroecology out of necessity after the Soviet system collapsed after the welfare gravy train aid from their Soviet friends all stopped.

How Peasant Farmers Made Agroecology Farming a Success

The Paradox of Cuban Agriculture - Stats on productivity

The Risk of a Marriage Alliance with America's Industrial Agriculture

USDA - March 2016: Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces Historic Agreements for U.S.-Cuba Agriculture Sectors

Here is what has happened with other poorer developing countries who form alliances with industrial Ag Business Interests

Is there really any need to rehash what has happened with the health and damage to both man and nature in those South American countries, or the increased wealth obtained by industrial nations corporate entities ? Nature and poor people are the real losers. It never has been about just wanting to feed the world.

Then as the article further states, the richness of biodiversity would ultimately disappear as it has in South American agriculture. So also would the diversity of crops marketed. Industrial Ag loves monocultures that they can control. You can read the rest of the article (Here). The ugly unsustainable topic now with most all of the well established giant Biotechs and new comer Biotech wannabes is something called Bio-Diesel for an energy hungry consumer planet where everyone wants a piece of the 'good life' pie in hopes of upgrading their lifestyles. Nothing wrong with that, but to satisfy those needs it is proposed that there are a number of plants around the globe which which hold promise for the world's bio-fuels. They would fill the bio-diesel need for all the world's consumption needs. Well at least partly. It would require millions more acres of raw land to be developed [this means more wildlands need sacrificing] into more industrial monoculture behemoths. And with all that land there would also be huge water requirements, far more than they are already wasting and scraping the bottom of the barrel now. Let's face it, these people have no clue on what the real solution is, but the potential for a fistful of them to enrich themselves off these phony schemes seems worth the gamble to them. But hey, with all that science-based, peer-review and Consensus behind them, they'll sure give it a try. Sad thing is most people will blindly fall for this propaganda. But then a handful will learn from the Cuban experiment and hopefully create their own version of biomimetic success. Look at what the prevailing Scientific Orthodoxy has brought us below. Who should you really believe ? Some frightening history not to forget when it comes to resisting the Anglo-American World Power's quest to stay that way

Some time back around the middle of 2014, several journals came out exposing the US government's efforts to pressure the Central American country of El Salvador to purchase Monsanto GMO seeds or face a withholding of foreign aid. I'll simply let you read the accounts for yourself:

U.S. Government To Pull Foreign Aid In El Salvador For Refusing Monsanto Seeds

The US Wants To Force GMO Seeds On Salvadoran Farmers, But They're Resisting: Report

US pressures El Salvador to buy Monsanto's GMO seeds

Evidently the Public Relations flack was so negative that the US Embassy down there El Salvador posted an explanation on their website as to why they were legally justified in taking the tough position on this:


So the justification here for their position was a little trade agreement between the USA & Central American countries & Dominican Republic called CAFTA-DR. I doubt many even remember this. But it may sound vaguely familiar to the one with the USA, Canada & Mexico called NAFTA. Lately there are others notorious trade agreements making the News, but you may remember that with NAFTA the sale of American Farmer government subsidized corn hurt many of the indigenous peasant maize farmers throughout Mexico who could not compete with the American's cheap corn. The US response was purchase and grow America's GMO seeds and synthetic chemicals and get bigger harvests which would offset the lower corn prices. While the P.R. on all these agreements is that it's for the good of the people and their economy, historically this is never how things work out. Many of these countries now have buyers remorse. So who knows what Cuba may be getting themselves into when signing on the dotted line. Quite simply this is how this world now works. Like everything else going haywire around the globe, this is now the "New Abnormal."

Update April 1, 2016:

U.S. companies make case for keeping Cuba organic

Some Interesting Reading References you can track on your own

The Conversation: Cuba’s sustainable agriculture at risk in U.S. thaw

The Slate: What Cuba Can Teach Us About Food and Climate Change

The Campesino-to-Campesino agroecology movement of ANAP in Cuba: social process methodology in the construction of sustainable peasant agriculture and food sovereignty

Lessons from Cuba - Cuba's Surprise Harvest

Posted by Kevin Franck at 3:59 PM Labels: agriculture, agroecology, business, Campesino, chemicals, Cuba, Ecology, economy, health, industrial, local farming, microbiome, peasant farming, USA, wildlife
Location:Göteborg, Sweden Cuba



Thanks for visiting and for your comments!

 Kevin Franck
