Oil scarcity and food crisis: the Cuban response

Industrialized agriculture is completely dependent on petroleum.  Oil is used to power tractors that sew and harvest crops, trucks and ships that transport food all over the country and the world, factories that process food. Fertilizers and pesticides used to grow food are made from petroleum, as is the plastic used to package food. Imagine what would happen if the vast majority of this precious resource we depend on so heavily were to suddenly disappear? How do you think the people in this country would react? How do you think our government would response to a crisis of that proportion?

For almost 40 years, Cuba was economically dependent on the Soviet Union for Petroleum, chemicals used in agriculture, and more than half of its food supply, which it received in exchange for cash crops and mineral resources. This relationship had proved to be very beneficial for the Island Nation and its communist government, and by the 1980's it had become the most prosperous country in Latin America. Agriculture in Cuba was completely industrialized and completely petroleum dependent, utilizing chemical fertilizers and pesticides to grow monoculture cash crops. Over 60% of its food was imported. When the Soviet Union began to fall apart in 1989, the country lost more than half of its oil and food imports, and nearly all of its chemical imports, and was left to fend for itself virtually overnight. Peter M. Rosset, Executive Director for Food and Development Policy at Food First, describes it as if, "Suddenly, a country with an agricultural sector technologically similar to California found itself almost without chemical inputs, and with sharply reduced access to fuel and irrigation."[i]

The Cuban government was faced with a crisis of monumental proportion. Somehow they had to figure out to feed a population of over 8 million people, and reprioritize their economy for food production without relying on petroleum-based agricultural practices. What resulted was a system of smaller-scale, localized agriculture that by default was based on organic farming techniques. Interestingly enough, urban farming unintentionally became a very important component of this new system. Almost immediately after food shortages began, citizens of Havana began growing their own urban gardens, despite having little, if any, knowledge on how to grow crops and virtually no resources. Eventually the central government caught on to this trend, and decided to develop a decentralized urban agricultural initiative all over cities in Cuba. The ministry of urban agriculture in Havana, called MINAG, encouraged people to start growing their own food, giving any interested persons land-use rights for vacant lots all over the city, and hopes to have all vacant urban land under cultivation. MINAG also provides resources for Havana's urban farmers, among other things, educating them on sustainable and organic farming methods, setting up community seed banks and education centers, and allowing people to sell their excess produce to earn extra income.

Urban agriculture became a huge success by the mid-nineties. According to the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture, enough produced is grown in the city of Havana to provide between 150-300 grams of fresh produce a day to its over 2.5 million residents. There are many different sizes and types of plots under cultivation that are suited for different parts of the city, which I will not delve into here.  I think Havana demonstrates the possibilities for developing urban agriculture on a large scale. It is important to note however, that in order to have any sort of success on such a scale, it is crucial for the municipal government to be involved. Not necessarily to the extent of MINAGs involvement, which would be impossible to have in the United States anyway,but at least to the point where the city government makes abandoned and empty lots readily available to would-be urban farmers. 

If you want to know more about Urban Agriculture in Cuba, click here to watch a video from the BBC series "Around the World in 80 Gardens" gives you a good visual and informational overview on the topic, although it's a little long,

Click here for a shorter video and article from BBC.com on the topic.

[i] Rosset, Peter M. , "Alternative Agriculture and Crisis in Cuba", IEEE Technology and Society Magazine, Summer 1997.