Cuban Miracle

Well, I was doing my Environmental Sciences project on Cuban urban farming and for the first time, I actually had a hope that we might not be actually speeding our overweight vehicle of earth rapidly into the wall of doom. The work done there is nothing short of encouraging and I wish more people would take notice of it. I mean, this is the kind of work that needs propaganda!

Going back a little bit, the Cuban government was established by the USA and the head of states were just puppets of the United States. Enraged, the govt. was soon overthrown by the Communist Party and Fidel Castro became the leader. He nationalized all the American refineries without paying any compensation. The Americans retaliated by placing an embargo on all exports to Cuba except food and basic medicine.

The crisis hit Cuba hard and the govt. found it unable to even feed its population. Also, left without any modern machines or inputs for agriculture, the Cubans had to quickly do something to feed the starving millions. That's when the Cubans decided to chuck the policy of state holding the land and gave it back to the farmers. Old organic methods were revived and The Dept. Of Agriculture of Cuba actively promoted organic farming and "Bio-Fertilizers". The production saw a slump for the first 5 years but then increased dramatically and helped ease the problem of food shortage.

But the biggest success story of the Organic revolution in Cuba are the "Organoponicos" or urban farms. Picture this: Huge buildings, skyscrapers, residential areas and in the middle of it all, a farm where fruits and vegetables are grown. That is basically the urban farms and its an effort to make food and farming very much a part of urban life-connecting nature to life.Many of the Cuban households and restaurants grow their own vegetables on their rooftops or backyards. 

The icing on the cake, and the economists will love this one, the revolution created millions of jobs in the form of vermi-compost specialists, farmers etc. producing over 90% of fruits and vegetables that Cubans consume in around 7000 'Organoponicos' covering over 35,000 hectares of land.

The land quality has shot upwards and the land yield has quintupled and the pesticide usage has gown down so dramatically. I was just thinking how we should actively promote something so wonderful that has been happening and has been showing good results too. It has helped create jobs, cleaned up the land, provided enough food and made the country happier. Its a huge opportunity for "The third world countries" and they should grab it before its too late.