A very interesting article. Thanks for posting it.

There is a lot that we can learn from cuba's experience. You are right logenzo, it is very heartening. Thanks!

Here is a video on urban gardens in cuba.

www.youtube.com/watch

That’s a good article. Thanks Lorenzo.

The counter-revolution in the USSR and Eastern Europe left Cuba in a very difficult situation. Trade and aid from those countries dried up and the U.S. economic blockade continued. The Cubans went into that Special Period with creativity, science, and a continuation of socialist methods of food distribution and by doing so they have been credited by relief agencies for preventing a massive humanitarian disaster. In addition, Cuba's moves to organic farming are indeed inspiring in terms of what is needed for the earth.

An example in the negative was North Korea in this same time period. The North Korean leadership was facing a similar situation to Cuba with the fall of the Soviet Union and a heavily industrialized agricultural sector, but instead turned to capitalist methods of food distribution in 1995 which was a major cause of massive starvation. This combined with a series of floods that destroyed 40% of crops in 1995-96 followed by drought in 1997. An estimated 600,000 or more Koreans died of starvation from 1995-1999. The food situation in North Korea remains precarious. While no capitalist country has been capable of doing what Cuba has done, North Korea as it produces capitalistic reforms has also been incapable of doing what needs to be done to solve their food crisis.

The U.S. government has wanted to overthrow the Cuban government ever since they carried out a land reform against Rockefeller's United Fruit Company, but the Cuban people continue to struggle forward in the face of economic blockade and U.S. sponsored terrorism. In addition to organic farming, Cuba has carried out a major campaign to reduce carbon emissions, which earned mention from the World Wildlife Fund a couple years ago as Cuba being the only country in the world to be doing what is needed on global warming.