Cuba's 'seed man' wins global environmental prize

[Judi Lynn]

Cuba's 'seed man' wins global environmental prize
By WILL WEISSERT
The Associated Press
Monday, April 19, 2010; 3:34 AM

BAUTA, Cuba -- The folk-singing scientist strides over dry, fluffy soil that's brown with a hint of red, like brownies fresh from the oven. He's talking about seeds. He's always talking about seeds.

Humberto Rios Labrada's campaign to let Cuban farmers choose the crops and seed varieties best for their lands helped him win one of the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prizes - known as the "green Nobels" - on Monday.

"I want the seed to adapt to the people, not the people to adapt to the seed," the 47-year-old, self-described hippy told The Associated Press during a recent visit to this farming town 20 miles east of Havana.

Rios' wants to make Cuban farms more sustainable by giving farmers more autonomy - a radical notion in what has long been a strictly top-down planned economy where officials tell producers just what to grow, even if it isn't quite right for the soil.

Government officials at first bristled at his ideas, but his success, along with greater government openness to local autonomy, has led them to grant him unusual and growing leeway in working with 50,000 farmers and counting.

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/19/AR2010041900453.html

[Mika]

1. Wait until Monsanto deals w/this, after Obama frees Cuba.

Where there's no Monsanto, there's no freedom. :puke:

The World According to Monsanto (1 of 8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hErvV5YEHkE

----

Thanks for posting this inspiring story.

---