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Cuban Food Revolution Essay

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Food Revolution in Cuba
When we think of Cuba, we think revolution, yet we will zoom in on a different revolution that has been happening in Cuba and this is a food revolution. This crucial movement was in response to crisis, hitherto it resulted in the most innovative act of sustainability. After Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, the US placed an embargo on the country. They were maintained by the Soviet Union, yet they would face a downfall that would propel innovation. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, deemed the Special Period, the country suffered a tremendous loss in the supply of food, medicine, and fuel, and so had to find a way to feed the people. Action to grow in vacant lots began and resulted in what is now called organoponicos. In Micky Ellinger’s “Urban Agriculture in Cuba,” he cites that there are over 7,000 organoponicos and growing. In the city of Havana there are close to 2.1 million people, it houses more that 200 gardens and thousands of backyards and rooftops where people are practicing the sustainable food growing practice of urban agriculture. (Worldatlas.com)
The urban agriculture development succeeded due to structural changes implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture in coordination with local and municipal governments, the efforts of research centers, national and international non-governmental organization (NGO’S), collaborative projects, and not to mention the determination of the farmers. (Murphy, 1999) The government’s department of

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