by Alison Auld

In Cuba, shortages are a way of life. Beginning in 1962, Cubans have had
to cope without many basic necessities. Soap, toothpaste, clothing and even food became hidden treasures when the United States imposed its trade embargo and effectively severed the island’s lifeline. The thinking was, cut off their ties and the upstart revolutionaries will be forced to come crawling back. But instead of bringing Cubans back into the fold, the sanctions inspired a unique blend of Cuban resourcefulness. Ask how they get by and people say “inventamos,” we invent.
The energetic farmer is part of a growing movement that has transformed the island from one of the most lagging agricultural producers to a leader in alternative farming approaches. “In Cuba, a lot of the farming is organic by default,” says Ralph Martin, a professor at the Nova Scotia College of Agriculture in Truro who has done extensive research in the Caribbean nation. “They haven’t had the money for herbicides and pesticides, so they’ve had to come up with ways to farm without them.”
Havana, a city of about 2.5 million people, was hit the hardest. Located on the island’s north coast and relatively isolated from farming belts, the capital found itself in the midst of a major food shortage. Fuel needed to transport and refrigerate food from rural farmlands was in short supply, and state rations meant to provide for a month only lasted a week. Frustrated by the deepening shortages, many Cubans took matters into their own hands. Literally. They started growing their own food.
Martin Bourque, head of Food First’s Cuban Organic Farming Exchange Program, based in Oakland, California, says people headed to their backyards, rooftops and vacant lots to sow seeds. “It’s been a real evolution. Originally it started when people took over land and found something to grow on it,” says Bourque, whose group shares information and expertise with Cuban farmers. “Now you drive down streets and see a house, a building, and then a garden. Every time I go I’m amazed at how successful and big it is.”
Businesses, schools and hospitals have also carved out gardens to supply their kitchens and cafeterias. In one small plot, minutes away from the Plaza of the Revolution in central Havana, Jorge Antunis plucks grubby roots from the soil. “Years ago,” he said in an interview with the development magazine New Internationalist, “there was nothing planted here.” The garden, about a thousand square metres, now provides Antunis and the six other families that live next to it with bananas, tomatoes, sugar cane, yucca, plantain and beans. “The land was rocky and worn out at fi rst. One of the fi rst things we had to do was rebuild the soil with new organic soil and manure.
In a former baseball field just outside Havana, workers at an organipónico, a state-run organic farm, have devised a completely natural way to tend their crops. Plants are sown in raised cement beds and fertilized with decaying coconut leaves from nearby trees. Manure is collected from canvas bags that are attached to horses plowing a neighbouring fi eld. A natural pesticide has been developed from the crushed leaves of the Neem tree, which is indigenous to the Caribbean. And compost is taken from a vat full of worms that break down waste into rich soil. “They’re very sophisticated,” says Martin, adding that the country is already being looked at as a model for other nations. Bourque says Cuba is way ahead of other nations in its development of biological pest controls, which have already been imported to other Central American countries and could be used in many poorer – or richer regions of the world. Necessity is forging alternatives in other sectors as well. Cubans are experimenting with solar energy because of electricity shortages. And the world of medicine is also undergoing its own revolution, as doctors look for other ways to treat people without scarce medicines. When the Soviets pulled out, they took with them a steady supply of modern antibiotics. That caused Cuba to invest in alternative treatments—like homeopathic remedies, acupuncture, and natural tincture and to encourage urban gardeners to grow their own medicinal herbs. The eating habits of Cubans have improved, and many are returning to a more traditional diet lost when imported, canned foods elbowed out conventional and healthier food in the 1980s. Cubans are eating more vegetables now than they did 15 years ago, and they like the fact that they can buy produce in newly privatized markets.
“I think these farms are pointing the way ahead,” says Ralph Martin. Cuba is now far ahead of other nations in organic farming techniques. “We may be going to them some day and asking advice.”

Alison Auld is a Halifax-based journalist. Reprinted with permission from
Sustainable Times, Halifax, Nova Scotia. www.sustainabletimes.ca. Email: Times@chebucto.ns.ca.