Food First: Updated Cuba Organic Agro Report Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit source - Bill Koehnlein Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy http://www.foodfirst.org/cuba FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 6, 2002 Contact: Nick Parker (510) 654-4400, ext. 229 Policy Think Tank Releases New Report on Cuba's Successful Organic Farms First time any country has made the transition from chemical-intensive farming to sustainable agriculture on a national scale "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. * Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance: Introduction (PDF) * Sustainable Agriculture and Resistance: Chapter 1 (PDF) * Read reviews, and purchase a copy of the book For more information about the book, please contact Nick Parker at (510) 654-4400 ext. 229, or at nparker@foodfirst.org, or visit our web page at http://www.foodfirst.org/cuba/. 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 (c) Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy 398 60th Street, Oakland, CA 94618 USA Tel: 510-654-4400 Fax: 510-654-4551 Email: foodfirst@foodfirst.org **************************************************************************** "Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism." --Martin Luther King, Jr. **************************************************************************** The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory http://www.toplab.org **************************************************************************** ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytenv-02.24.02-02:24:14-17362