permaculture

[Rain Tenaqiya <raincascadia@yahoo.com>]

I was hoping someone with more knowledge about Cuba would respond to this 
inquiry, but I can share what I know.  Cuba started using biological pest 
control in the 1930s and had a history of research into organic farming due 
to one of the original revolutionaries, a friend of Castro's (I can't 
remember his name, it's on the web) who served in the government for a long 
time.  While Cuba was busy importing oil from the Soviet Union, this man was 
trying to find more sustainable ways to grow food and was able to convince 
the government to fund the research.  By the mid 1980s, Cuba was moving 
towards Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and when the Soviet Union collapsed, 
he was able to quickly implement many of the methods he discovered, some of 
which go far beyond anything practiced in the US (especially around the use 
of insects).  Cuba is famous today for its organic agriculture, but there 
were many advances in agroforestry and integrated farms, as well.  Cuba has 
redistributed land into
 smaller farms and is now producing more food than ever and has organic 
gardens in the middle of the cities and is working on many other innovations. 
 As far as permaculture goes, since the early 90s, permaculture has been 
incorporated into government programs (I think Europeans taught the first 
courses) and has been supported through government funding.  I don't know how 
many Cubans have been exposed to permaculture principles and techniques, but 
the government has been very receptive to it.  Recently, Dave Blume (Santa 
Cruz, California, farmerdave@permaculture.com ) was working on a vast 
permaculture training project for Cuba being funded by a large grant.  I 
don't know what happened with it.  Anyway, I can't think of a better place to 
help the spread of permaculture, as Cuba has a very educated poplulation 
(more literate than the US), with more scientists than any other Latin 
American country, and is in a very good position to implement permaculture, 
and would be a great example
 to the rest of the world.
 
Rain


                
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