Vermont farmer takes inspiration from Cuba

[Mika]

Vermont farmer takes inspiration from Cuba

However, Stevens said, watching the Cuban farmers at work got him thinking about the big picture of agriculture.

“A lot has to do with the long-range perspective,” he said. “What we’ve been able to do for 31 years in our farm is directed toward filling our markets.”

Cuban farmers, he said, have more of an emphasis on the “human element.”

“Whether we went to a research facility or a farm or a university, they all came back to a triple bottom-line concept,” Stevens said. “The societal element is important, the economic element is important and the environmental element is important.”

While the lack of a free market has limited some of the options to Cuban farmers, it has also spurred innovations in organic farming, such as in pest control, as Cuban farmers lack access to many of the pesticides available in the rest of the world.

Stevens said he also thinks the United States could try to adapt some of the ways Cuba implements scientific programs at the farm level, perhaps with university sponsorship.

On that note, he said America could help the Cuban agriculture industry with experimental design. He said research projects in Cuba emphasize feeding people over producing data.

more --> http://www.timesargus.com/article/20130311/NEWS03/703119885

[flamingdem]

1. Thank you Mika

I'm mooved by this article! Vermont + Cuba ties are to be encouraged!

[bvar22]

2. Naw, Man.

The ONLY thing that matters here is the Quarterly Profits of the Factory Farms.

Too bad.
So sad.
Monsanto OWNS the USDA and the FDA here.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Has Cuba gone organic?

Has Cuba gone organic?

Dear John,

Is it true that Cuba has gone organic? Are there any tours to help someone go there and see for themselves?

Bruce


Dear Bruce,

Yes it is true. In fact, Cuba has developed one of the most efficient organic agriculture systems in the world, and organic farmers from other countries, including the United States, are now visiting the island nation to learn its methods. In the process, Cuba has disproven the myth that organic farming on a grand scale is impractical.

Peter Rosset of the Institute for Food and Development Policy says this is “the largest conversion from conventional agriculture to organic or semi-organic farming that the world has ever known.”

Cuba went organic by default, initially. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the U.S. embargo prevented the country from importing the chemicals upon which conventional farming depends. The country also could not obtain the machinery to support high-tech corporate farming. Organic farming became the key to feeding the nation’s growing populations.

Instead of an agricultural system centered on monocultures growing sugar and tobacco with chemicals for export, the land is now used to grow food organically for people. Rather than relying on dangerous agrochemical, Cuba uses compost and worms to fertilize the soil. Today, there are 173 “vermicompost” centers across Cuba, producing 93,000 tons of natural compost a year.

Even city-dwellers are part of the answer. Havana, home to 20% of the island’s population, is now flowering in small organic vegetable gardens, covering 30% of the city’s arable land.

More:
http://www.foodrevolution.org/askjohn/46.htm

[center]























Organoponico workers.[/center]
Organic farming, some of these photos are urban organic areas in or just outside Cuban cities.[/center]

[sabrina 1]

4. Good for him. It's about time this country came out of the dark ages and

started learning from countries like Cuba on Health Care eg, and Venezuela on just about everything, starting with not invading other countries to steal their resources to providing the American people with the benefits they are entitled to from their oil revenues, which we apparently give away to Global Corporations.