Sustainable Agriculture Research Delegation 2006!

 

 

 

Group Links:

Our Cuban Photo Pile- Download Here

Cuban Pictures Web Page- Click Here

 

Saturday, November 25:

6-11:30 P.M. Arrival to Habana. Check-in at the Hotel Plaza

US

Ventura

Woke up at midnight thinking it was 3 AM. Washed, dressed and looked at the clock again to see it was 12:30 AM. Long day ahead. Planes not full after Thanksgiving. No Mexican nationals on the plane from Salt Lake to Cancyn. All gringos going for holiday. Cancun was very modern, but all I saw was the terminal where I had some real food after a 5 hour Delta flight with only crackers and soda. Remember: always fly Mexicanc in Mexico. Other folks coming in on US airlines had the same take on poor food on planes. So we meet our 11 in Cancun. Two others are already in Cuba. B.F.

 

Welcome to Cuba, the stewardess goes down the plane alley and sprays some sort of bug poison. By international convention this is done to prevent exotic pests coming into Cuba. Terminal $1=1 convertible peso. Terminal very modern and clean with guards all over the place. Our group takes a while to get through the processing along with several other planes from Spain, Costa Rica, and “Hola Airlines” wherever that is. We get out of customs and walk into the lobby and everyone there looks well fed and not too shabbily dressed. It’s 11:30 at night. Met out guide Yanellise and driver Luis. First thin to ask is what are the big trees in the parking lot and neither knows what it is. Big legume looking tree. Hotel Plaza is a big old colonial building, actually 1920. Grand the way grand used to be. The buildings in town are in the same style but extremely run down. It’s Saturday night and there aren’t a lot of folks out. Occasionally see a bar packed with people, but not a lot doing from the bus windows. Hotel has some guys hanging in the restaurants. Cubans and some Germans. Mike M and I eat and go to bed. Radio doesn’t work. Shower’s nice. Toilet has tp, soap. We are set. Oh the tour guide looks and acts just like Scarlett.

B.F.

 

__Sunday, Nov. 26:__

 

Orientation meeting

People

 

60% Spanish descent, 22% mixed-race, 11% African descent, 1% Chinese

 

Religion

 

47% Catholic, 4% Protestant, 2% Santería (many Catholics also practice Santería)

Lonely Planet

 

The United States has no diplomatic relations with Cuba.

 

Cuba's military, once known for "exporting revolution," has undergone a transformation since the end of the Cold War. Its new mission is the fight for Cuba's economic survival. The military is now deeply involved in national development, from hotels to agriculture to business ventures with foreign companies. How will this affect Cuba's future? LinkTV

 

Visit to Scale Model of the City.

Started in 1988. Largest city model in the world. Buildings made from Cigar Boxes. They are color coded according to the time period they were built.

 

The City Planners are promoting grassroots development/local control. Planning from the community level. If the plan belongs to the people it will be preserved even if the gov't changes. Housing is not about building houses, it is giving people a place for living, not just a place to live.

 

Havana was founded in 1519. Havana became the capital city in 1607 and was the last stop for Spanish ships on their way home from the Indies. The city was extremely vulnerable to pirates...spent the next two hundred years building many fortresses and a city wall. Trade and agriculture (sugarcane, tobacco and rum) allowed the city to grow. Ruled by Spanish generals until 1762, when the English took over for eleven months, allowing free trade. The Spanish retained control in 1763 but loosened up control and their monopoly of trade. 250,000 living in Havana by the end of the 19th century.

 

Much of the 20th century saw U.S. inspired building but after the revolution, Fidel chose to put his financial resources into Agriculture throughout the country. This led to a housing crisis as the city quickly deteriorated. Havana has 2.5 million residents, making it the largest city in the Caribbean.

 

 

City Walking Tour including urban gardens and farmer's market.

 

Internal processing (9 yr. rum) meeting on the streets of the city.

 

 

Observations/ Comments

1982 UNESCO named Havana historical center a World Heritage Site. Communities with green/ gathering spaces bring higher job and life satisfaction. City suffers from poor maintenance, lack of water/sewer, blackouts, overcrowded public transportation and the black market. Everyone is called by their first name including Fidel. Every family has a member in the U.S. Family values helps to separate reality from fiction particulary when it comes to governmenst and their people. Love American music and movies.

S.T.

 

__Monday, Nov. 27:__

 

Early walk to Capitolio National. Looks similar to the US Capitol building in, but richer in detail. Fidel never wanted to use the building for his government (it was initiated by US-backed dictator Gerardo Machado in 1929) so today it's a museum and the home of the Cuban Academy of Sciences and a National Library.

 

Meeting with Foremy, El Instituto Cubano para Amistad de Los Pueblos (ICAP) representative. Promotes visitors of friends of Cuba to learn about the culture after the revolution. fidel directed many of the changes. Pays doctors to train including a few doctors in the U.S. so they can send back U.S. requirements for medical training. Pays U.S. students way to medical school in Cuba if they can't afford at home (Harlem). Pay back in service to Cuba. Cuban doctors must put in three years of service before traveling to work in another country.

 

3-15 day International Camp held each year to learn about Cuban society as it develops.

S.T.

 

ICAP spreads foreign aid, coordinate social work & the visits to all ministries/departments. Make arrangements for all foreign groups.

ICAP rundown in beautiful old building that was taken over with the revolution. Everyone is a state employee and all businesses are owned by the state. It turns out ICAP is basically PR for the state, introducing foreigners to Cuba. – I have seen the future. There’s an ICAP in every province and we will meet with them when we go out of Havana. B.F.

 

Meeting with Ministry of Agriculture Offical, Juan Jose Dion or Leon (?) to discuss development of Sustainable Agriculture.

agriculture: 21.2%

industry: 14.4%

services: 64.4% (2004)

 

Stopped off at the Ministry of Agriculture and got a rundown.

 

I.Agriculture difficult for Two problems

1) collapse of USSR meant food, meat , fuel, fertilizers oil, pesticides, tractors, parts all disappeared in _ year. The country lost 75% of foreign trade. 2) US blockade (Toricelli-Burton).Toricelli Bill was passed in 1992. This bill ended US corporate subsidary trade with cuba, stopped any ship that trades at a Cuban port from trading at a US port for the following six months. Helms-Burton Act was passed in 1996 and restricts goods produced in third countries which contain Cuban inputs from being sold in the US. (And much more)

 

Agrarian Reform Laws implemented

-1959 all the land was nationalized over 400 ha.Up to 67 Hectares of land was allowed to be kept under private ownership. Sugar plantations became state farms, while non sugar lands were distributed to landless peasants. Larger lands split up. Different types of land deals. King Ranch pretty much all of the province of Comway. Not confiscated, but nationalized, meaning the state offered to pay for it. Every grower was given seed and fertilizer when given land. Lots of land owened by the state and given to small growers. 40% owned fewer than 400 has. The big landowners started a conspiracy and started a counter revolution supported by CIA.

-1963 second nationalization of growers with 400 has. Now 80% of land owned by the state, creating large state farms. Now all landholdings over 67 hectares were nationalized except where relatives worked land in common.

 

Collapse of Soviet Bloc (1989)

Thing worked as from 1963 until 1993 when experienced hardest years after collapse and embargo. they start implementing the following to improve.

 

Third Agrarian Reform

Transformed State farms into cooperatives. Land remains state owned.

1993, state farms were semiprivatized giving land of 1.5 ha to growers. Grower doesn’t pay rent to the state and is provided with equipment. After 3 years the grower then starts paying rent and for the

inputs.

-UBPC is a basic unit for crop production – a sort of private cooperative. 1779 total number of coops, which doesn’t include sugar cane which is still state owned coop.

-CPA (Agricultural Production Cooperatives) is another type of private coop totally 400,000 has. 107,000 private farms still but are formed into CCS's.

-CCS's (Credit and Service Cooperatives)Private farmers that never joined Coop. they organized neighborhood committees of 25-30 families to form a council. These councils are given judicial status at the Ministry of Agriculture. The CCS buys equipment and then rents the equipment out to members. These farmers have their original land. They range in size from 2-67 hectares.

 

Every year the Ministry of Agriculture(MOA)states production plan for the year.

The MOA estimates production level, meets with farmers. they take into account the main crops they produce and set policy and price to guarantee a 25-30% profit for the growers.

Prices are set by the state and guaranteed 25% return to grower. 80% of production goes to the state at a fixed price, 20% can go to farmers markets. These markets opened in 1994. State good goes into regulated markets where food is allocated to consumers. This includes the basic ration supply but also food for hospitals, 3rd age homes, daycare centers, schools.

Forced to move to organic and urban ag because of blockade and loss of fertilizer and pesticides. He had lots of numbers.

 

Urban Agriculture

Employs 320,000 workers

68,000 hectares of land within cities and outskirts

Last year (2005) produced over 4.5 million tons of produce which mainly include leaf vegetables and seasonings.

No chemicals in the cities

Biocontrol is all done with Bt and Beauvaria. National centers created to generate these(CREE) They are locally produced because they are not dried but created as liquids and sprayed regularly on fields. 320,000 urban ag workers. People get 305 g. of food a day. Technicians from the propagation centers monitor and tell growers when to apply biocontrols, 6-7000 techs, 1-30 ratio of techs to growers. Each center has labs for confirming techs decisions. This includes 25,000 professional workers with 7,000 vets, 13,000 agronomists, 60,000 middle level workers.

In school there is the Pioneer Palace where kids are trained in all manner of careers, one of which is farming related. 80% of people live in cites. Only 1 million employed in ag (320,000 of which are in the city).ports are tobacco, honey, some veg, organic sugar, manioc, and plantain. Import rice, soy, wheat.

No local organic certifiers because too expensive. Need to hire outside certifiers. Lots of exchanges with surrounding countries on ag practices. Fish farming is done in water reservoirs – lobster, tilapia, shrimp. Ministry of AG and Forestry forested land has gone from 3% surface area to 23%. B.F.

 

Lunch, Casa de la Amistad S.T.

 

Visit Association of Organic Farmers (ACTAF)

Miguel Cayus and the Havana Plan. _ day . Falling down buildings. Leslie from ICAP talks paranoia of coming to Cuba, like Tokyo Rose. Stop at organopnica garden, but it’s closed – lots of noni trees. The economic system is really skewed with the dual money system. Toured old town. Amazing reconstruction of buildings. Kim Zimmerman from Pasadena sent some stuff for some Cubans. Cici shows up at the hotel after waiting 4 hours for her. She had a gall bladder operation 2 weeks ago and it was done arthroscopically. B.F

 

 

ACTAF ..Technicos AG and Forestry

Lots of data and talking on the organoponicos in Cuba. 15 major municipalities in Cuba. There are 20,000 gardens in Cuba.It’s a grass roots movement supported by the government. There are 5 labs supporting the farms in Havana. The major limitations are 1) water and 2) organic matter to make compost.. They have had a positive impact on family nutrition, jobs and prettifiying the cities. There are retired and part time workers. There is direct consumption, sale on the street and state sale for hospitals, schools etc. Even container grown plants on back porches are included in the numbers of urban ag.

Saw an agroponico, wormcompost Bt, etc. Seems like old stuff here, nothing new. It’s urabn people who think there are doing something different. There’s a lack of organic matter to make compost. This is what Broadbent said 60 years ago.

ACTAF (association of organic farmers) Created feb 12, 1987

-have over 20,000 members in country, 11 research centers in Havana

From agricultural patios to Urban gardens

do a lot of training programs and encourage the desire to produce

2 way to commercialize:

1) Set up a stand at your garden and sell directly to consumer

2) Sell directly to schools, daycare's, etc and the state will pay you

Urban gardens do not have to sell 80% of their goods to the state. They are not connected to the ration program.

Urban ag. benefits:

Economic- increase the standard of living

Option to make profits from selling extra

city looks more beautiful

job opportunities

expose younger generation to agriculture- tie to the land

 

Jumped off the bus to buy a natural history book and the whole block was closed for fumigation. Went to “Africa House” where we heard and saw dancing. Not as good as what you can see in Africa, though, kinda stiff. The artifacts in the museum were a bit hoaky. Afterward went to a bar to hear music. One of the features here is everything is tile and cement. The noise is incredible and echoes everywhere. The music was great, the singer was phenomenal. I think he pitched his voice to the room so he could project like a microphone. He sure did project and I’m now deaf after only a two hour period.

Begging: Old women “Buy me some milk”

B.F.

 

Observations/ Comments

Cuban laws for exiles has been simplified. Cuban exciles in Mexico, U.S. Canada, Spain and all over the world.

 

Morning walk observed lots of clean-up, people busy going to work, use of machettes to cut grass, major park near capitol with all grass fenced off.

 

Bus talk- Cubans are very social and struggle with other cultures that don't communicate. Have a close relationship/ feeling towards the U.S. because of our history. Most are against the embargo and don't understand why they can not come to the U.S. to visit family. The Cubans want to know more about us. They hear that we work a lot, pay rent and are loners not very social. Why is Cuban a threat if it is only the size of Pennsylvania?

Cubans don't have money to travel. only denied visa if there's a chance of going to the U.S. Cuba tried to send doctors to help with 9/11 and Katrina victims but were denied. Fidel was one of the first to honor JFK after his assassination. Cubans not understanding of why American Cubans are against Fidel

. He has fought for social justice in Cuba and many other countries.

- "Cubans make jokes of many problems. Critize a lot, politics, etc. We have many meetings for social improvement. Many papers criticise openly about the 1980's This is the "period for mending mistakes"."

 

Personal lives of politicians, musicians are not part of media. Capital punishment is still in effect. Applied to highjackers three years ago which did stop further problems.

"Before Night Falls" did happen in the '60's

14 provinces (provincias, singular - provincia) and 1 special municipality* (municipio especial); Camaguey, Ciego de Avila, Cienfuegos, Ciudad de La Habana, Granma, Guantanamo, Holguin, Isla de la Juventud*, La Habana, Las Tunas, Matanzas, Pinar del Rio, Sancti Spiritus, Santiago de Cuba, Villa Clara

S.T.

 

 

__Tuesday, Nov. 28:__

 

The music is too loud.

Farmers market with all manner of veggies right next to a state market which has all the rationed food – no customers there, but the farmers market was clogged. Great tour site.

The farmers markets were started 12 years ago to supply a need. Before the special period the government was able to supply everybodys food needs. Gov't built structures and offered these markets to see if it would help. Farmer's and gov't officials meet to set prices so they aren't too high.

The gov't gets 5% for structures and 5% sales tax

Farmers send food to market with a middleman.

 

11/28 Urban Garden

UBPC, the private coop. 141 workers. 112 of these are members

President: Miguel Salsinas

3.6 Hectares last year, 11 hectares today

They own the production and resources but not the land.

Economic basis: 50% of profit goes to members and 50% covers needs of coop

History:

Collapse of Soviet bloc/food crisis lost fertilizers, food, ....

this is when Production Units were started and forced to go to organic agriculture

Began working with leaf vegetables, medicinal herbs, fruit trees, vegetable seedlings

Started the CREE's

Use biological controls, Bt, trichoderma, worm humus in liquid form as fungicide...

 

How does the coop function?

Workers must put in 90 days, then members decide whether of not to except them as members

Land divided into 6 units (I got 7)

1. production of organic materials

2. fruit trees and ornamentals

3. seedlings/nursery

4. marketing

5. small industry producing seasoning powders

6. maintenence

7. economic dept./ accounting

Coop works as a small country. There is an assembly that has legislative power.

Every 5 years the president is voted on by secret ballot

Distribution of profit depends on working hours. Members work 3 years to gain equal dist. of profits

Slight difference based on hierarchy- per/month salary depends on job

The president's salary is 550cp/month, plus an average of 275cp/2 weeks of profit split. About 1300cp/month

Another worker says she makes about 1000cp/month

Workers work 40 hours a week and get a 1 month vacation each year. the farm provides breakfast, coffeebreak, lunch, snack

Transparency of economy of farm: once a month make a report to all coop members about all the operations financial and technical status of farm. creates a feeling of belongingness to the members, stimulates their minds to think up more efficient and better ways to do things

 

What prevents cuba from producing all its own food? Miguel's answers:

Largest amt of land in cuba was devoted to sugar cane in the past. they had 160 sugar mills

Soviet collapse/embargo- infrastructure collapsed

to move from that type of agriculture has been very violent

sustainable ag. moves around biomass/animal waste

Not easy to change the mentallity and teach people to grow organically

also, hurricanes dramatically effected bananas, citrus, rice and other one cycle crops

We could have done better

outside the city the larger farms have more resources : created schools to teach the use of oxen

also, social conditions:

whole education system is free, medicine is a popular career choice- agronimy is not so common

 

Programs for young people:

1) disabled kids from neighborhood school 2-3x/week, work in mornings

2) junior high students researching biology etc...

3) students in regular education choose a social activity for their vacations. 1-2 weeks in the summer come and work on the farm.

 

Using magnetized water, worm compost, intercropping, Beautifully tended. Doing a little bit of everything so can’t figure out what is going on . Make the compost out of manure. At their second site, there is a smaller operation. 140 people are making about 500 pesos a month, but share profits which another 500 or so depending on sales, but small amount . Everything is in raised beds for drainage- 50% soil/compost with cement walls. In between harvests add 2 inch of compost or manure to top of bed. Using fr3esh animal manure. Manager was a bazooka soldier at the Bay of Pigs. Actually globs of manure in lettuce beds. All hand weeding, 24 guys on 4 acres. Very labor intensive. They say purslane and amaranth are their major weeds. Why not eat them?

 

Also, there was that liquid smoke contraption. does anyone have notes on this?

 

INIFAT. Founded 1904, oldest tropical ag organization in Latin America. At the end of the day the presentation was just too long and boring and repetitive. Urban ag involves 6 ministries – Fish, Ag, Health, Education etc. – 18 scientific institutions included universities etc. 208 seed production facilities in the country – point of food security, but sounds more like job security. Still can’t supply all the seed needed. The data they give is that the urban gardens are 60% for direct sale, 16% for home consumption and 11% for farmers markets. There’s only 2.5% postharvest loss. Amazing (the veg are harvested at the time of sale and given straight to the consumer). 4,100,809 tons of veg per year from urban gardens. (This dame is talking too much). Have a masters program in urban ag, 77 units, 1 week/month for 2 years. B.F.

 

 

Observations/ Comments

 

 

 

__Wednesday, Nov. 29:__

 

Left at 7 Am for Spiritus Sanctus. Had lunch at ICAP in a beautifully restored colonial building. History tour of the city with a very knowledgeable guide. Busted sewer line was flowing right into the river. The damage was done by a state company to a state company and complaints were made to a state company and one month later nothing had been done. Noise noise noise motorcycles, music, building. No birds.

 

Organoponico producing 25 Kg/square meter/year. 5 workers full time on about 1/3 acre producing 1,500 Kg veg per month. Started in 1994 and created in 8 days with the locals and the elementary school. (Got stung by a bee and my leg swelled up). Compost made with dairy manure. Food goes to clinic, school etc. but 2/3 goes to farm store. 3 guys who spoke with us were ministers in the government at some point. One was getting an award the following week for his contributions. All had been prominent in the military. They use products from CREE which is the agency that produces the biocontrol products like Bt. They also use nicotine/lime to spray on the ground to kill nematodes (unlikely). They have a neem tree that they use for making a leaf extract to kill insects.

 

Organoponicio florico next. Producing about 30 species of flowers sold at two stores and delivered to businesses by bike (husband and brother). Apply tobacco stocks to soil surface a mulch to control nematodes. 2.5 acres, 19 workers. The owner has a digital camera which means she probably has a computer which means this woman is making some money. A woman from INIFAT was there too and said that there were 490 intensive farms (grown in the soil) in this province and 2,000 patio gardens and 190 organoponicos (grown in raised beds).

She mentioned trapping nemetodes on the roots of radish and marigolds, and pulling them out of the soil after 30-35 days.

 

Organoponico Celia Sanchez. It’s getting dark fast. 31 workers on 4 acres, each worker gets 1/30 of the are to work and earns according to what is harvested (capitalism?), and typically earning 1,000 pesos a month. Biggest problem is irrigation, but are correcting that by increasing the size of the system. This is the largest organoponico in the province. We went back to it the next morning to see it in daylight

 

This night we went to a CDR. Music, dancing, food. Pretty nice group who didn’t eat anything but watched us. They are the eyes of the neighborhood and foil any bed guys. I wonder what the police do then? In Havana there seemed to be a cop on every corner. B.F.

 

Observations/ Comments

As we were driving from Havana we kept seeing all the sugar cane. Why are they growing so much when they need to import food? They must be exchanging it with Venezuela for oil or state hasn’t figured out how not to grow it. Only birds we saw were buzzards and cattle egrets. Every cow has its egret. The buzzards were way up in the sky, doing circles on the currents. I wonder if the kids are eating the birds the way they do in Togo? B.F.

 

City dwellers increasingly are encouraged to plant organoponicos (urban gardens) with the aim of decreasing dependence on food from rural sources. The loss of petroleum imports has resulted in severe problems with the refrigeration and transport of food, and urban gardens are seen as a way of shifting the burden. Unused land parcels are available free of charge to anyone who will grow food on them, and the grower is entitled to keep all produce. There now are more than 2,000 small gardens in the city of Havana, and growers range from individual families to entire neighborhoods, workplaces, and schools.

 

__Thursday, Nov. 30:__

Observations/ Comments

 

Santa Clara ICAP at Che’s memorial. Very impressive building with a modern touch.. He was killed in Bolivia and his body was returned about 20 years later here. These guys were really into cigars, beards and guns. Had all this stuff from his youth in Argentina. Both he and Fidel came from fairly prominent families. I wonder how Fidel dealt with the families he had known growing up?

 

At ICAP which is a contrast to the Spiritus Sanctus building. This is a very modern with artistic statues and wall hangings. Two guys from CubaSolar talked about renewable energy programs. Biomass from sugar cane, wind power, ram pumps, biogas, photovoltaics. Builidng dams for hydropower. The goal is to have tv, computer, vcr for every kid everywhere, even in the mountains where there is currently (!) no electricity. The photovoltaic components are purchased internationally and then assembled in Cuba. In this province 40% of energy is renewable, mostly coming from dams and biogas. The ram pumps work well in the small streams coming out of the mountains. They put on conferences and courses for educators and workers.

 

Santa Clara organoponico. La Riviera

Serpentine soil (very few places in the world have these. California for one) and poor drainage are the reason for the raised beds. In the rainy season the plants would die otherwise. This place is 14 years old and the guy who runs it was big in the army. They apply compost at 10 Kg per square meter of bed. They plant sunflower and sorghum as trap crops to keep insects away from the crops. They use all the standard CREE biocontrols of Bt, Beauvaria, neem, Trichoderma (and beneficial nematodes?). 22 workers on 1.5 acres, 1 full time irrigator, 1 sales 1 person per 1000 square meters. They earn 400 pesos a month and also have profit sharing which raises the monthly substantially. They have another 1.5 they could develop. 1 worker for 1,000 guava trees. (We haven’t seen many trees on these gardens other than noni. It must not pay to grow a perennial in this situation when they need to wait for the fruit to come in 3-8 years. Noni has only been grown here for about 10 years and must fit into some market niche). Use asotofosfor (?) to correct soil pH. According to this guy Raul Castro started the whole organoponico deal. Not sure how some rich kid knew how to grow beans, though. The whole system of raised beds and what not has been in the literature and practiced for more than 50 years, so it ain’t new. The produce is sold directly from the field. People line up to buy it and it is harvested according to what they want. According to our guide no one ate lettuce, cabbage, spinach, egg plant, bok choy 20 years ago. These gardens really have changed people’s eating habits. This is also the first garden that has animals as part of the system, rabbits and chickens for food and manure. They also are growing coulantro (not cilantro) which tastes like cilantro. Most of these places also grow a big-leafed oregano that supposedly also acts to ward of insects. They also have a stingless honeybee that they raise for honey. There’s always one bee at the hive entrance to protect from other colonies. Use neem extract for insect control.

 

La Riviera

grow lettuce, spinach oregano, onions, beets, turnips, bok choi, cucumber, carrots, radish, cilantro, eggplant, green beans, parsley, tomato.

It struck me, the amount of soil these farmers have to truck in. this guy said they drove in 100's and 100's of tons of soil to create these beds because the soil at the site is so terrible.

 

Vivero El Tamarindo (plant nursery)

Owner: Elvey de la Paz

Stopped at wholesale nursery. Half of it was a cienega (swamp) that the state dutifully filled in for him. It’s about 2 acres total. Grows houseplants, mango and avocado. Ships to Venezuela and Mexcio. This guy is moving. He’s exmilitary and must have ties. He pays 20% of profits to the state But gets help from the state to build tunnels, irrigation, planting bags and what not. Has diverted a little stream so he can build a kiln to make pots so he doesn’t have to buy them. Doesn’t realize that a good storm is going to wash all of that away. He uses zeolite and sand in his planting mix. Turns out zeolite is a Cuban product. It’s usually too expensive to use in the US. This is what he says corrects for root rot problems. He also wears a Bayer hat and on the calendar in both greenhouses in has Ridomil and Amistar listed as being applied. These aren’t cheap fungicides,so this guy must have something cooking.

B.F.

He has a big problem with fungus so he picks off infected leaves and burns them in his cematorium, then applies the ashes as fertilizer/fungicide. Did i get this right?

 

__Friday, Dec. 1:__

Talk on bus in morning:

Fuel oil imported before the 90's was 13 million tons. During the special period it went down to 1 million tons. people went without power sometimes for 14-16 hours a day. No refridgeration.

Created yellow person: would stand at bus stops and stop state owned cars to get people rides

started importing bikes from china

70 sugar cane mills were shut down.

 

Pasture and Forages Station (Indio Hatuey) Founded 1962

Mission: Develope sustainable programs for cattle graising by generating knowledge and training staff.

4 main research work lines:

1)Protection of 1,600 species of plants for production of forages

2)Biotechnology- creating new food for cattle,working with local resources, using citrus waste, beneficial microorganisms

3)Development of sustainable systems mostly for cattle

4)social, economic issues/management/transfer of technology

 

Head for Varadero, stopping at the Pasture and Forage Station. See zebu cattle and intercropped leucaena and moringa and mulberry trees used as forage and as an overstory for pasture. Increases yields of cattle and goes through the dry season better. The only Black man we have heard from in this country who has a power position was a geneticist with a PhD from Spain – Dr. Matamoros. He’s been working on breeding woolless sheep that can handle the heat better. I guess they produce better than the goats which are adapted to this county and are tethered all along the roads. He’s also been working on a school program introducing kids to rabbit production. We heard from some of the other researchers and then took a little trip around the station – 600 acres.

 

Then got in the bus and headed for Varadero with its miles of hotels. Got there in enough time to have a swim. Perfect, not too hot not too cold. Asked Yanellis if she swims and she said not in the winter -too cold. On the road saw Fresas y Chocolat, or part of it. Great film and it explains some of the CDR and their nosing about and the status of homosexuality. Have to get when back in the States.

 

Observations/ Comments

 

 

 

__Saturday, Dec. 2:__

 

Big Military parade Day. Saw some of it on the tv. Raul comes down in a jeep, standing erect. His jeep does a little dance with another jeep with a guy standing in it and then cruise down the road to where the crowds are and then he goes back to the viewing stand and they’re off. All the while, there’s a guy yelling Viva Cuba, Viva la Revolucion, viva whatever. First the military comes down and then people carrying all kinds of posters, Down Bush. And then we head out for Matanzas for lunch. This is where the US army was headquartered after the Spanish-American War. After lunch, leave a tip for the waiter and this guy who’s a post man and has been hitting us up for stuff goes over and takes the tip thinking we don’t see. We want convertible pesos. Head out along the coast and we don’t see much more ag. Oil wells, hills and lots of different palm species. More than just the Royal palm.

 

On the bus we find out that Tembi was stopped by the hotel guards from entering. It’s happened at several of the other hotels. He’s Black and there aren’t many Black foreigners and they stop him because they think he’s Cuban. He can’t even speak Spanish. None of the white folk in our group have been stopped. Cubans aren’t allowed to stay in these hotels and there are a lot of fair skinned Cubans. So few

American here. People ask if we are Germans or English or Canadian or Swedish and are really surprised we’re from the US. A couple of times people have said, we like Americans but don’t like Bush. Stop the Blockade.

Notes on the road: Swimming in the Caribbean is incredible with the turquoise water and the blue sky and the clouds moving all the time. The only reason all the belching cars and factories don’t foul the air is because the wind is blowing all the time. They kept talking about Granma during the tv military march. This was the boas Fidel used to come to Cuba to start the revolution the second time. It was owned by an American and is now in a museum in Havana. The daily newspaper is called Granma which has about a 1/3 of its news about the US. Another link to the US – baseball. The flag is redwhiteblue after the American flag which Marti designed in New York when he was in exile in the 1890’s. Great flag. The freeway out here is amazing. Sometimes 3 lanes in each direction and hardly any traffic. Saw some cowboys clogging one of the sidelanes the other day. We’re not going to see the end of Fresas. When AIDS first started, patients were isolated in sanitariums. Now people are given the option of taying home and having a physician visit them. CDRs make comments on people’s character when they apply for a job. Havana is just as noisy as when we left.

 

Observations/ Comments

 

 

 

__Sunday, Dec. 3:__

Even with the old cars, there are very few dents. Didn’t see one accident on the road. They actually move kinda smooth and slow. Back in the country the bus driver got stopped for speeding in a school zone. He was just warned and he didn’t have to pay a bribe.

 

Went to the Revolution Museum and saw Granma more beards, guns and cigars. It takes a lot of memorabilia to make a revolution. Lots of pants and pictures. But man the rum is good.

 

Proyecto Communitario

Vilda Figueroa: Chemist, Animal nutrition, scientist, 10 years ago created this project trying to popularize the healthy diet integrated with gardening and preserving food.

Jose Lama (Pepe): mechanical engineer, started working with his wife a few years ago.

Created in 1996 with the CDR and now has over 8 million members.

Grassroots organization with a limited infrastructure. Only 3 people work at their center.

Back in '89 before special period cubans consumed 2,900 calories a day. In '93-'94 it was 1,860 calories a day. Today they are up to 3000 calories a day. Now they are having an increase of obesity in Cuba.

 

Objectives:

-promote food preservation

-provide economic benefits and food security

-avoid food losses at small and large ag markets, as well as at home

-diversify food choice

 

How did they get started?

-begin training volunteer promotors to spread knowledge and training

-produce educational materials so people can train themselves. able to do this in cuba b/c education level is high

-by working with different sectors-kids, 3rd age people, ag producers, rural and urban areas, health clinics, everyone can assimilate the work they are doing.

 

What do they do?

-have a center with exhibits of home preserved products and two urban gardens

-demonstrative talks in different districts, communities, workplaces, schools.

-practical workshops to show food preservation

-education through leaflets, books, videos

-radio and TV programs on food preservation, cooking, nutrition

 

Apply participatory work

Cuba lives in a united society, neighbors communicate, students are integrated. this makes it easy to transmit knowledge

 

 

Went on to see an organic (permaculture) food project started by a chemist and engineer. They promote canning of locally produced food. They use discarded bottles, lots of salt and aim to get people eating vegetables in the wet season when it’s too hot to grow things. Never knew that the heat would stop a tomato. We grow them in the desert here but with a lot of irrigation water. Must be fungus and bacteria that really stops the plants. They served us herbal tea (rosemary, basil, anise) in plastic cups like we use for soda and you could feel the plastic melting in your hand. Marzolla broke a plastic chair he was sitting. One thing he was just sitting there and next he was on the floor. At the place we ate at next, all the chairs were doubled up as if it was a common problem. So we heard about their organoponicos in the schools in CDR neighborhood groups and then went to see a school garden. This summer the couple went to the Slow Food Conference in Italy which is by invitation only – along with about 8,000 other people. Permaculture has only been here 10 years and Cubans don’t have a history of gardening or eating vegetables. 20 years ago people are only about 7 g per person and today eat 800 g a day. In fact they are eating about 3,000 Kcal a day and there’s a bit of an obesity problem (42% are obese). Most people look a bit chubby and according to Cuban custom it’s healthy to look chubby. During the Special Period people were eating 1800 Kcal and people were terribly “ugly.” Yo soy promotos. They have contacted 15,000 people through their workshops and 2 million by tv cooking shows. From there we ran over to a third age (jubilados) center and had lunch. Pretty decent food and we had a Tropicana style dance and song (way too loud) played for us while we ate. The dancers were really skinny and the singer acted like Mel Torme, bit hoakey. Then we had a trip back to the hotel and got ready for our last night’s dinner. Held at the hotel where Hemingway would stay when in Cuba. Marzolla felt right at home since everyone thinks he looks like Pappa. Learn a bit of Cuban dance, then went home and to sleep. B.F.

 

Observations/ Comments

 

 

 

__Monday, Dec. 4:__

Got up too early, had dry toast and two cups of coffee. Tembi and Robin stayed on. Got to the airport too early. Said good-by to our driver and guide. They were both fantastic. Steve couldn’t find his passport and doomed to go to the American Business Section to get a new one (he made it out the same day on a later flight). In the airport lounge there were 3 black birds and 2 sparrows bouncing around the tables collecting food. We all got on the plane and flew off to Cancun and we flew out separate ways. Arrived back in Ventura at midnight to quiet streets.

 

Notes: Organopónico is the Cuban term for any urban garden. (It seems that before the special period began, the country had a few demonstration hydroponic gardens, much bragged about in official propaganda and quickly abandoned when the crisis hit. The high-tech-sounding name stuck, however, recycled to reflect the new, humbler reality.)

 

There are thousands of organopónicos in Cuba, more than 200 in the Havana area alone, but the Vivero Organopónico Alamar is especially beautiful: a few acres of vegetables attached to a shady yard packed with potted plants for sale, birds in wicker cages, a cafeteria, and a small market where a steady line of local people come to buy tomatoes, lettuce, oregano, potatoes—twenty-five crops were listed on the blackboard the day I visited—for their supper. Sixty-four people farm this tiny spread. Their chief is Miguel Salcines López, a tall, middle-aged, intense, and quite delightful man.

 

“This land was slated for a hospital and sports complex,” he said, leading me quickly through his tiny empire. “But when the food crisis came, the government decided this was more important,” and they let Salcines begin his cooperative. “I was an agronomic engineer before that,” he said. “I was fat, a functionary. I was a bureaucrat.” Now he is not. Most of his farm is what we would call organic—indeed, Salcines showed off a pyramidal mini-greenhouse in which he raises seedlings, in the belief that its shape “focuses energy.”

 

Magnets on his irrigation lines, he believes, help “reduce the surface tension” of the water—give him a ponytail and he'd fit right in at the Marin farmers' market. Taking a more “traditional” organic approach, Salcines has also planted basil and marigolds at the row ends to attract beneficial insects, and he rotates sweet potato through the rows every few plantings to cleanse the soil; he's even got neem trees to supply natural pesticides.

 

But Salcines is not obsessive even about organicity. Like gardeners everywhere, he has trouble with potato bugs, and he doesn't hesitate to use man-made pesticide to fight them. He doesn't use artificial fertilizer, both because it is expensive and because he doesn't need it—indeed, the garden makes money selling its own compost, produced with the help of millions of worms (“California Reds”) in a long series of shaded trenches.

 

While we ate rice and beans and salad and a little chicken, Salcines laid out the finances of his cooperative farm. For the last six months, he said, the government demanded that the organopónico produce 835,000 pesos' worth of food. They actually produced more than a million pesos' worth. Writing quickly on a piece of scrap paper, Salcines predicted that the profit for the whole year would be 393,000 pesos. Half of that he would reinvest in enlarging the farm; the rest would go into a profit-sharing plan.

 

It's not an immense sum when divided among sixty-four workers—about $150—but for Cuban workers this is considered a good job indeed. A blackboard above the lunch line reminded employees what their monthly share of the profit would be: depending on how long they'd been at the farm, and how well they produced, they would get 291 pesos this month, almost doubling their base salary. The people worked hard, and if they didn't their colleagues didn't tolerate them.

 

What is happening at the Vivero Organopónico Alamar certainly isn't unfettered capitalism, but it's not exactly collective farming either. Mostly it's incredibly productive—sixty-four people earn a reasonable living on this small site, and the surrounding neighbors get an awful lot of their diet from its carefully tended rows. You see the same kind of production all over the city—every formerly vacant lot in Havana seems to be a small farm.

 

The city grew 300,000 tons of food last year, nearly its entire vegetable supply and more than a token amount of its rice and meat, said Egidio Páez Medina, who oversees the organopónicos from a small office on a highway at the edge of town. “Tens of thousands of people are employed. And they get good money, as much as a thousand pesos a month. When I'm done with this job I'm going to start farming myself—my pay will double.”

 

On average, Páez said, each square meter of urban farm produces five kilograms of food a year. That's a lot. (And it's not just cabbage and spinach; each farm also seems to have at least one row of spearmint, an essential ingredient for the mojito.)

 

SideBar

SideBar