Co-published by Food First Books and ACTAF (Cuban Association of Agricultural and Forestry Technicians) and CEAS (Center for the Study of Sustainable Agriculture, Agrarian University of Havana)
The World’s First National Experiment in Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance: Transforming Food Production in Cuba is the story of Cuba’s remarkable achievements in the use sustainable agriculture, organic farming, urban gardens, smaller farms, animal traction, and biological pest control to feed the country.
"To understand Cuban agricultural development we must first look at the richness of detail in this volume. Then we have to step back and squint to capture the truly novel pathway of development that Cuba is pioneering. And then once again we have to focus in on the details, and glimpse the processes through which Cuba is creating something truly new and hopeful for all of humanity." -Professor Richard Levins, Harvard University School of Public Health
OAKLAND, CA--Cuba's successful switch from chemical-intensive to sustainable agriculture carried the island nation back from the brink of a national food crisis brought on by the 1990 collapse of trade relations with the former socialist bloc. This fascinating case demonstrates that organic agriculture could actually work as the basis of an entire nation's farming sector, putting the lie to the oft-repeated myth that "organic farming could never feed the world," according to a new book-length report issued by Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy, a food policy think tank.
The multi-author report, Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance: Transforming Food Production in Cuba, is largely written by Cuban experts on agricultural production, and represents the first time Cubans have made public the details of this enormous agricultural transformation.
For 30 years Cuba had fully embraced chemical pesticide- and fertilizer-intensive farming methods to meet its domestic food and export needs. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, Cuba, a target of a thirty-year economic embargo by the United States, lost its biggest trading partner and its ability to import food and the chemicals and machines to grow it using conventional technology.
"Suddenly $8 billion a year disappeared from Cuban trade. Imports were reduced by 75 percent, including most foodstuffs, spare parts, agrochemicals, and industrial equipment," according to Dr. Fernando Funes, a principal researcher in the book. "Unexpectedly a 'modern' and industrialized agricultural system had to face the challenge to increase food production while maintaining production for export, all with more than 50 percent drop in the availability of [agricultural] inputs."
Sustainable Agriculture explores the ambitious program Cuba embarked on during the ten years subsequent to the collapse of the Soviet Union, a program which fed the country's population. By 1999 Cuba's agricultural production had recovered and in some cases reached historic levels. While rural farms and farmers contributed greatly to this success, a key component was the emergence of urban farms and gardens as the principle source of fresh produce in cities.
"In the early 1990's a strong urban agriculture was born in which thousands of people produce food using organic methods that help supply basic foodstuffs to urban families," said Dr. Funes. "The effectiveness of organic techniques in urban gardening has been clearly demonstrated, and it is here that we are possibly closest to the ideal of sustainable agriculture, due in part to the prohibition of the use of chemicals because of the proximity to dense human populations."
Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance: Transforming Food Production in Cuba includes contributions from thirty-two of Cuba's leading agriculture researchers, plus three American experts on Cuban agriculture, including Dr. Peter Rosset, the co-director of Food First. It also includes a prologue by Professor Miguel Altieri of the University of California at Berkeley, and an epilog by Professor Richard Levins of Harvard University.
Table of Contents
Note from the Editors
Prologue: Principles and Strategies of Agroecology in Cuba/Miguel Altieri
Introduction: Lessons of Cuban Resistance/Peter Rosset and Martin Bourque
PART I: History, Context, and Structures of Change
Chapter One: The Organic Farming Movement in Cuba/Fernando Funes
Chapter Two: Cuban Agriculture Before 1990/Armando Nova
Chapter Three: Cuban Agriculture and Food Security/Marcos Nieto and Ricardo Delgado
Chapter Four: Transforming the Cuban Countryside: Property, Markets, and Technological Change/Lucy Martín
Chapter Five: Social Organization and Sustainability of Small Farm Agriculture in Cuba/Mavis D. Álvarez
Chapter Six: Agroecological Education and Training/Luis García
PART II: Alternative Practices for a New Agriculture
Chapter Seven: Ecological Pest Management/Nilda Pérez and Luis L. Vázquez
Chapter Eight: Intercropping in Cuba/Antonio Casanova, Pedro L. Quintero, and Adrián Hernández
Chapter Nine: Mechanization, Animal Traction, and Sustainable Agriculture/Arcadio Ríos and Félix Ponce
Chapter Ten: Advances in Organic Soil Management/Eolia Treto, Margarita García, Rafael Martínez-Viera, and José M. Febles
Chapter Eleven: The Integration of Crops and Livestock/Marta Monzote, Eulogio Muñoz, and Fernando Funes Monzote
PART III: Examples and Case Studies
Chapter Twelve: Green Medicine: An Option of Richness/Mercedes García
Chapter Thirteen: The Growth of Urban Agriculture/Nelso Companioni, Egidio Páez, Yanet Ojeda Hernández, and Catherine Murphy
Chapter Fourteen: “Cultivo Popular”: Small-Scale Rice Production/Miguel Socorro, Luis Alemán, and Salvador Sánchez
Chapter Fifteen: Sugarcane and Sustainability in Cuba/Rafael Suárez Rivacoba and Rafael B. Morín
Chapter Sixteen: Case Studies: The Mixed Experiences of Two New Cooperatives/Niurka Pérez and Dayma Echevarría
Food First, also known as the Institute for Food and Development Policy, founded in 1975 by Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins after the success of Ms. Lappé's book Diet for a Small Planet, is a policy think tank that carries out research and education-for-action. Food First works to identify the root causes of hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world, and to educate the public as well as policy makers about these problems and alternative solutions to them. Visit Food First's web site at http://www.foodfirst.org/cuba. International Food Rights
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