I recently saw a rather interesting documentary. The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, takes a detailed look at how this tiny nation has dealt with a decades-long shut off from supplies the rest of us deem necessary, and in the process provides a blueprint for how larger countries might actually begin making some of the same transitions themselves, including a nation-wide organically grown food system. Ready for a peek at how they did it?
I have to say I'm impressed. As we sit and discuss with friends quite frequently how we think this country might deal with the severe energy crisis that has yet to hit, Cuba's been successfully dealing with one for years. In the process, they've also managed to achieve an organic agricultural production rate of eighty percent. On a dime. How have they done this? Well, I won't spoil the whole movie for you, but suffice it to say that when pesticide deliveries dried up after the fall of the Soviet Union, they had to figure it out in a hurry.
In instances where tractors and fuel weren't affordable, old timers were brought in to train the younger generation on the use of oxen and even to train the young oxen themselves. Water saving measures were implemented for irrigation through a concept called “food forests”, and rooftop city gardens were developed along with squatted garden plots on unused strips of available land. Larger farms from the older system were broken down into smaller private cooperatives which voluntarily contribute food to the needy. With an externally enforced energy crisis, Cuba was also forced to develop increased public transportation options virtually overnight. Again, I won't spoil the film for you, but I found their “camel” buses to be quite creative, along with their distribution of individual bicycles to those in need.
No matter what one's political opinions on the Cuba situation, I think we can all appreciate the tenacity and resilience it has taken to make these adjustments for the long haul and with little access to external support. Going almost completely organic with agriculture, and significantly independent when it comes to fuel is impressive. Doing it when most people barely have a pot to pee in is downright inspiring. I'm not saying that every measure Cuba has taken will be feasible for the United States. What I am saying is that Cuba has already dealt with an energy famine successfully. Why not take the opportunity to learn from our nearby neighbors who have actually pulled off a working model of how to deal with energy adversity?
At any rate, I found the film of note and recommend it to any of you who have the chance for a viewing. It's available on Amazon. A couple of other urban green posts are available on Wise Bread, including several city shopping bag options.
This post was written as a movie review, and to promote discussion on green transitions at the national level. I ask that we keep the comments focused on those things, rather than straying to the political conditions that caused this situation.
Seriously people, I meant it. This discussion is for ways to make national transitions to green only. It is NOT a political discussion. If you have nothing to say on the requested discussion topic fine. Those of you who continue to post political comments will find them missing. On topic comments are welcome.
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So you are deleting comments -- I guess you learned more from Cuba than farming and green practices. Please, let people say whatever they want to say. It's their opinion... after all the first amendment... why bother... delete this too. :(
Oh for crying out loud, I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. Particularly when the courtesy of an on record name and URL wasn't given. Does anyone care how broke country managed to do what we haven't? Successfully? Anybody?
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Cuba imports 80% of its food as of 2008.
The USA is their #1 source providing about 25-30% of their food imports. Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act (TSRA) allows US to export food to Cuba as an exception to the trade embargo.
I hope their improving their agriculture situation but I don't see anything to envy nor emulate.
I dont' think theres a lot that the USA can learn from Cuba here. Oxen and city roof gardens won't be sufficient to tend the 900M acres of farmland in the USA, feed our 300M people and export surplus food to countries like Cuba.
Jim @ Freeby50
Thank you for the on topic comment. I'm thinking the oxen are a push for us too, to tell you the truth. However, there were some interesting ideas covered in the film. Aside from that, I think it's still impressive that they pulled it off. There may be some community applications that can be replicated in small form repeatedly. Sort of like the urban homesteading here in the states. Maybe it's because I've seen some really intense situations overseas where communities don't have a ton of money. But I just think it's cool they pulled it off at all.
As I said, this was a film review not an overall analysis. Thanks for sounding off.
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Some farmers in SD have been experimenting with making their own fuel. We have very relaxed laws regarding running your own still or other small scale production equipment to make bio-diesel or ethanol. Even if many are not doing it, the easy ability to is a good back up plan.
The local produce farmers don't use a huge amount of machinery the way it is. So smaller plots being done without lots of machinery is possible. Having more people growing even a portion of their own food could have a major impact on our dependency on imports and factory farmed food. If everyone who had a yard dedicated part of it to food and everyone with communal space did something it could make an impact.
Why we have not done something to lower the production price of solar panels and an initiative to have them on every single roof space possible is beyond me.
We're waiting anxiously for more affordable solar options in this house as well. Sigh . . .
The other thing that I think is doable here is the sky farm concept. Not a lot of real estate by land area, but by going up, large amounts can be grown hydroponically in glass skyscrapers. The markets could be worked in at the same location to have sort of a U-pick situation city style.
Also, when the larger farms were broken down in Cuba (at least this was my understanding after watching the film) they were broken down into the smaller cooperatives from farms that had been government owned. That's not going to cut it for larger family farms here in the United States. However, I did run across an interesting idea recently on another green documentary piece I was watching. (When I find it again, I'll try to write it up.) Anyway, the point was raised that if we simply tweaked our subsidies program at the national level, organic farming would be more affordable. Because those would be the farmers that were getting subsidized, including for the transition costs. Then the overall price could be lower for the consumer as well.
I'm no subsidies expert, but the idea seems simple enough. Does anyone else have any information on how to approach things from this angle? Also, the individual growing thing I think is powerful in its own right, and not every country is as massive as ours, so there may very well be things Cuba has done that other countries can use. While things may be changing now, for years things were tougher and the people still pulled it off, was my point.
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I've not watched the documentary, but I've heard of this situation before; it was addressed in Deep Economy by bill McKibben.
The point of the story is not political. The point is that this is a nation that faced a serious resource crunch and managed to limp through it. I think we might be able to recognize that as an admirable feat--if not now, then in the future when it happens elsewhere.
I agree MB, definitely an admirable feat. In the beginning of the documentary when they were going over peak oil so thoroughly I thought we'd never get to the accomplishment part, but in the end I was glad they went over the concept in such detail. And it really is an interesting watch as a film to see how they pulled it off without having much to work with. There was definitely a trial and error stage they went through as a nation.
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Myscha,
You lost me at "Cuba's been successfully dealing with one for years..." How do you define the word "successfully"? I have Cuban friends, and they tell me people in Cuba are barely surviving. Do you have any experiences on how people live in Cuba other than watching a film?
I think you might have had a point had you chosen a different adverb, but "successfully" does not seem appropriate for people so desperate that are willing to risk their lives in shark-infested waters.
On another point, deleting people's comments is a surefire way to lose your audience. I, for one, will not come back to this blog.
Success is relative compared to how some people live along the riverbank in Cambodia. That they are pulling it off at all is what impresses me. I actually do have a few Cuban friends, yes.
A few examples of the comments that were deleted included several on the Obama versus Bush front (totally unrelated), and one or two dealing with one regime versus the other (again, unrelated). We have always reserved the right to moderate by topic. Comments relating to this discussion are fine. When people don't stick to the topic, ideas on the actual subject aren't developed, and debate doesn't happen. Feel free to read whichever blogs interest you. As for me, I'm pretty much over rudeness and completely off topic comments from those who haven't even completely read the post. So I'm exercising normal parameters to keep things on track. We've had problems in the past on numerous other articles, so this is the approach I'm choosing to take.
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Thanks for the tip -- I will check it out.
And it can be just as illustrative to see which problems they did not solve effectively as to see which approaches worked. We can learn from both. The system does not have to be perfect to be instructive.
Farming in the US is going to have to undergo some major changes as the price of oil goes up. Our farmers are going to need some good ideas for getting through -- from whatever sources they may come.
I actually researched Cuba's transition from oil-intensive agriculture to more sustainable practices in graduate school. It is a very interesting story of how one country confronted their own personal "peak oil."
Given the task at hand, the shift was a great success. Sure, things aren't perfect, but it was a dire situation they had to face once their oil supplies were cut off.
Remember, this has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with food security. Modern agriculture is essentially a process of adding fossil fuels to dirt to make food. We feed our global population through an unsustainable agricultural system, and once the fuel runs out, I'm afraid things will get scary real quick on this planet of ours.
Thanks for recognizing the point of the piece, guys. This was a movie review and discussion generator on the subject of fuel efficiency, food production and green transitions.
I agree, things were definitely not perfect but they sure solved a number of pressing problems in a hurry and kept a fair number of people from starving.
So back to this farm subsidy question, does anyone have any background in this? It seems to me that switching to subsidizing the organic methods and farmers' transitions to them, it could become viable at least in some areas. Like I said, I'm no expert on those programs, but the idea seems workable from my perspective.
Check out my various projects and services at Itinerant Tightwad. I also have a monthly education newsletter.
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