The vegetable gardeners of Havana

By Sarah Murch
BBC Two’s Future of Food
August 2009

Climate change, drought, population growth – they could all threaten future food supplies. But global agriculture, with its dependence on fuel and fertilisers is also highly vulnerable to an oil shortage, as Cuba found out 20 years ago.

Around Cuba’s capital Havana, it is quite remarkable how often you see a neatly tended plot of land right in the heart of the city.

Sometimes smack bang between tower block estates or next door to the crumbling colonial houses, fresh fruit and vegetables are growing in abundance.

Some of the plots are small – just a few rows of lettuces and radishes being grown in an old parking space.

Other plots are much larger – the size of several football pitches. Usually they have a stall next to them to sell the produce at relatively low prices to local people.

Twenty years ago, Cuban agriculture looked very different. Between 1960 and 1989, a national policy of intensive specialised agriculture radically transformed Cuban farming into high-input mono-culture in which tobacco, sugar, and other cash crops were grown on large state farms.

Cuba exchanged its abundant produce for cheap, imported subsidised oil from the old Eastern Bloc. In fact, oil was so cheap, Cuba pursued a highly industrialised fuel-thirsty form of agriculture – not so different from the kind of farming we see in much of the West today.

But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the oil supply rapidly dried up, and, almost overnight, Cuba faced a major food crisis. Already affected by a US trade embargo, Cuba by necessity had to go back to basics to survive – rediscovering low-input self-reliant farming.

City allotments

Oxen replaced tractors when Cuba became a low-fuel economy
With no petrol for tractors, oxen had to plough the land. With no oil-based fertilizers or pesticides, farmers had to turn to natural and organic replacements.

Today, about 300,000 oxen work on farms across the country and there are now more than 200 biological control centres which produce a whole host of biological agents in fungi, bacteria and beneficial insects.

Havana has almost 200 urban allotments – known as organiponicos – providing four million tons of vegetables every year – helping the country to become 90% self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables.

Alamo Organiponico is one of the larger co-operatives employing 170 people, which was built on a former rubbish-tip that produces 240 tons of vegetables a year.

There are a wide range of crops planted side by side and brightly coloured marigolds at the edges.

“We produce all different kinds of vegetables,” says farmer Emilio Andres who is proud of the fact that his allotment feeds the local community.

“We sell to the people, the school, the hospital, also to the restaurant and the hotel too.

“It’s important because it’s grown in the city, it’s fresh food for the people, it’s healthy food, and it provides jobs for the people here too.

“We don’t spray any chemicals. We only spray biological means like bastilos – a bacteria and fungus to kill the pests. And we use repellent plants like marigolds to keep away the pests.

“When I see all of these healthy crops, without too many pests, grown without any chemicals, it’s amazing for me – I am making a contribution for the people that get healthy crops, healthy products.”

See the complete BBC article here.

We’re screening it at 7.30pm on Saturday December 15th @ Sessions of Spontaneity

Watch the trailer now:

And watch the whole thing!

(NOTE: although much if not most of the film above is in English there are no subtitles on the spanish bits)

See also The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Watch it now!

UPDATE: watch it here.

We’ve screened it a few times, but since now it is on goolge video…

An emergency picket outside the Mexican embassy has been organised for tomorrow, Friday July 14, from 1pm to 2pm to support the demand by social movements in Mexico to count each and every vote. These pickets are taking place in many different countries around the world.

In front of half a million supporters last Saturday, the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador formally challenged the July 2 election results, charging fraud and citing other irregularities with the electoral process.

Without a doubt, the elections were rigged to prevent the PRD from winning the elections. The Mexican ruling elite are prepared to go to any lengths to prevent Lopez Obrador from becoming the next president of Mexico.

We must protest against this attack on democratic rights. Please join the picket of the Mexican embassy tomorrow and pass this info on to anyone else you think might be interested. The Mexican Embassy is situated at 16 St George Street, Hanover Square, London W1 (nearest tube: Oxford Circus).

Letters of protest should be sent to the embassy at mexuk@easynet.co.uk – and see www.gregpalast.com and www.narconews.com for the latest news from Mexico.

Then this Saturday July 15 from 1pm to 7pm there is the Radical Activist Network conference on Latin America: Social movements fight back, at the University of London Union, Malet Street, London WC1 (nearest tube: Goodge Street).

Oscar Olivera, spokesperson for the Coalition in Defence of Water and Life in Cochabamba, Bolivia, will be speaking, as will Hilary Wainwright (Red Pepper), Andy Higginbottom (Frontline Latin America and Colombia Solidarity Campaign), Sue Branford (Latin America Bureau and War on Want) and Jorge Martin (Hands Off Venezuela).

Sessions and workshops will include: Social Movements and Left Governments, Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution, Social movements in Bolivia, Brazil’s Landless movement and the continuing Zapatista revolt in Mexico. Entry by donation (£2 suggested), more info: http://www.radicalactivist.net/latinamerica

Finally, next week’s Wednesday meeting will be from 6.45pm at The Inn On the Green, 3-5 Thorpe Close (under the Westway), Portobello Green, W10 (nearest tube: Ladbroke Grove), where we will be holding the British premier of the new documentary Five Factories, about workers’ control in Venezuela, followed by a debate and social. We hope you can make this special event, more info at
http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&Itemid=&agid=4&year=2006&month=07&day=19

Best Bolivarian wishes everyone from the London Hands Off Venezuela crew.
Via the Creative Forum list

—–Original Message—–
From: Danniela Uribe
Sent: 22 June 2006 18:58
To: Daniel Lewenstein
Subject: Voices of Latin America

Dear all,

We have now organised the third in the series of Latin
American seminars under the ‘Voices of Latin America’
project.

The title is: The Left in Mexico and the Other
Campaign.

Date: Monday 3rd of July at 7PM.

Venue: IRMO offices, 493 Cambridge Heath Road,
London E2 9BU.

The main speakers will be: Camilo Salazar and Fernando
Moret.

This will be a very interesting talk for anyone who
wants to know about the left in Mexico and which are
the alternatives after the elections. The elections
will occur on the 2nd of July and there are some hopes
from the left if the PRD wins. However, does the PRD
represents the left and if it does, which left
represents? Is the other campaign from the Zapatistas
another alternative, another left? Which are the
proposals of the other campaign?

Please spread the word!!

(We’ll send a flyer soon)

Danniela

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