Quote:
Originally Posted by peacelovinman
I have been very interested in the Cuban community garden movement. Do you have any experience of that, Gwynned?
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The only personal experience I have is seeing them all as we left Havanna for the airport. But the story of organic gardening exemplifies the difference between how Cuba responds to an emergency or a resource deficiency v. how the U.S. responds. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Cuba entered the 'special period.' Among the difficulties, was the sudden lack of oil based fertilizer.\ that they had been receiving under subsidy from the Soviet Union. Their response was to turn to organic gardening and home gardens and they've since developed quite the market for their goods and been able to feed their own people (starvation was a goal of the US embargo), and become a leader in organic gardening. They did not ask for a bailout for the people who could no longer farm and they didn't go to war with anyone to secure the fertilizer. They made lemons into (organic) lemonade, and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Not bad for a small carribean island with few natural resources.