permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

Small Solutions Top Cuba Agro Event
http://www.plenglish.com/article.asp?ID=%7BEA4F1643-798D-495F-B632-2ED8D8E5BF4D%7D&language=EN
Mike Fuller

Havana, May 14 (Prensa Latina) At the Hotel Nacional over 500 Cuban 
and foreign participants at the 8th Organic and Sustainable 
Agriculture Encounter this week brainstormed for healthy ways to grow 
food in a hostile world.


The posters hung in four simultaneous sessions explained the use of 
magnetically treated water for bigger tomatoes, sunflowers as pest 
barriers, honey and color traps to combat aphids and even dried and 
ground earthworms as nutritive flour for human consumption.


A gnarled hand pointed to a volume on cooperativism lying on the book 
table with others. "I have that one," said its owner, who admired 
with his friend the collection on display by Cuban, the UN Food and 
Agriculture and many non-governmental organizations.


Literature on shortened cycles, extended agro-calendars, project 
startup guides, accounting, semi protected crops, dehydration 
techniques, bio-gas, seed production and entomofauna was a formidable 
testimony to the progress of organic and sustainable agriculture in 
Cuba over the last 15 years.


BORN FROM NEED, HERE TO STAY


"It began in the early 1990's when individuals started growing their 
own poultry, rabbits and pigs," said to Prensa Latina Dr. Jose Emilio 
Llibre of the Cuban Animal Production Association, who chaired the 
Urban Agriculture meeting.


They also produced vegetables, and by 1994 he said the State saw the 
phenomenon as a source of labor, food security and way to occupy 
people left idle after the collapse of the socialist bloc.


A national group of urban farmers was formed and Llibre said that 
even now with slightly better economic indicators "it looks like 
urban agriculture is here to stay."


Training, chemical free production and cooperation with Germany, the 
Netherlands, Spain and other countries have made Havana a world 
reference of urban agriculture and currently allow it to produce 80% 
of its vegetables.


Llibre said profit-driven violations of organic codes and 
unsympathetic priorities of decision makers for some grassroots 
initiatives are part of a complex panorama in sustainable culture 
here, which he reminds was born spontaneously from need.


PROFOUND CULTURAL IMPACT


Adolfo Rodriguez of the Institute of Fundamental Investigations in 
Tropical Agriculture chaired the Urban Agriculture workshop, citing 
thousands of tons of organic food produced in the last decade, 
intense training, permaculture awareness, 300,000 new jobs, childrens 
clubs and new diets as part of the cultural impact of urban 
agriculture in Cuba.


He specifically mentioned several star operators of "reference 
gardens" from the audience, who stood for applause.


Individuals, cooperatives, municipal, provincial and national levels 
all were represented at the event, and Dr. Luis Vazquez of the 
Institute of Investigations in Vegetable Health gave a fascinating 
paper on experimental agriculture in Cuba.


Sharing data from Credit and Services Cooperatives, Farm Production 
Cooperatives, and Basic Units of Cooperative Production, he explained 
the importance of context in each case, and said it was important to 
avoid myopic solutions and vital to seek compatibility.


At the end of the first day Mario Gonzalez Novo of the Cuban 
Association of Forestry and Agricultural Technicians, of the 
organizing committee told Prensa Latina that 400 Cubans had come from 
all over the country, and 125 foreigners from 25 nations.


SMALL SOLUTONS TO WORLD FOOD CRISIS


When asked what had been the best moment so far, he quickly said 
"when Dr. Peter Rossett said the time has come for food sovereignty."


This US proponent of small solutions to the world food security 
crisis said he has been in Cuba over 20 times, and is known for his 
work with Food First, the Institute for Food and Development Policy 
and Via Campesina.


Rossett said in his presentation that "Three decades of neoliberal 
policy and free trade, dismantling of national food production 
systems, exporting and subsidies are enemies of family agriculture 
and campesina sectors."


He explained their tactic is to first flood a local market with cheap 
imports, then once it is captured substitute with more expensive products.


In a special comment to Prensa Latina he said the current 
decentralization of Cuban agricultural decisions to a more local level is good.


"Imagine a State Minister is told to increase agricultural quotas by 
a certain amount in a given time. That is much more complicated than 
on the municipal level, which is how things are to be done now in 
Cuba with the new measures implemented by Raul Castro."


When asked if he had any particular message for a US reader, the 
author of What's So Beautiful about Small Farms smiled and said "I 
think all countries have something to learn from Cuba."


nm/mf


PL-14