[Sust-mar] Sustainable Agriculture In Cuba Video (The Nature of Things)

[Helen Jones]

It's an odd coincidence, but I just viewed another excellent DVD on the same
topic that a friend loaned me.

 

It's called  THE POWER OF COMMUNITY:  How Cuba Survived Peak Oil.

            Produced in 2006 by The Community Solution - Community Services,
Inc., a group exploring the peak oil crisis.

            www.communitysolution.org

 

It's a prophetic film (both sobering and inspiring) and shows clearly what
all of our communities need to be doing.

The question in my mind is can we accomplish this without the advantage of a
quasi 'benevolent dictatorship' that Cubans had the advantage of.

Right now we're running blind.

 

Helen Jones

Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

 

 

From: sust-mar-bounces at list.web.net [mailto:sust-mar-bounces at list.web.net]
On Behalf Of Stephen Caines
Sent: December-01-07 7:51 PM
To: sust-mar at list.web.net
Subject: [Sust-mar] Sustainable Agriculture In Cuba Video (The Nature of
Things)

 

Hi everyone. Here is a link to a video I have been trying to track down for
some time, and finally found. It is called "Cuba: The Accidental Revolution"
and it is a CBC Nature of Things documentary.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5350731284170267256
<http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5350731284170267256&q=cuba+the+accid
ental+revolution&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0>
&q=cuba+the+accidental+revolution&total=2&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&pl
index=0

Here is the writeup that accompanies the video at the site: 

Cuba: The Accidental Revolution are two one-hour documentaries celebrating
the country's success in providing for itself in the face of a  massive
economic crisis, and how it's latest revolutions, an agricultural revolution
and a revolution in science and medicine are having repercussions around the
world. 

Cuba: The Accidental Revolution (Part 1), airing Sunday, July 30 at 7 P.M.
on CBC Television, examines Cuba's response to the food crisis created by
the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in 1989. At one time Cuba's agrarian culture
was as conventional as the rest of the world. It experienced its first
"Green Revolution" when Russia was supplying Cuba with chemical and
mechanical "inputs." However, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989 ended
all of that, and almost overnight threw Cuba's whole economic system into
crisis. Factories closed, food supplies plummeted. Within a year the country
had lost over 80% of its foreign trade. With the loss of their export
markets and the foreign exchange to pay for imports, Cuba was unable to feed
its population and the country was thrown into a crisis. The average daily
caloric intake of Cubans dropped by a third. 

Without fertilizer and pesticides, Cubans turned to organic methods. Without
fuel and machinery parts, Cubans turned to oxen. Without fuel to transport
food, Cubans started to grow food in the cities where it is consumed. Urban
gardens were established in vacant lots, school playgrounds, patios and back
yards. As a result Cuba created the largest program in sustainable
agriculture ever undertaken. By 1999 Cuba's agricultural production had
recovered and in some cases reached historic levels. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's a good video (don't forget part 2, which you can link to from part 1).
Maybe we can start making similar changes some day in our own agricultural
system here in Atlantic Canada. Enjoy! 

Steve Caines
Sackville, Nova Scotia






 

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