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
Pedraza (1998), Professor of Sociology of the University of Michigan, in her research stated that the Cuban migration have been analyzed through the years, with emphasis on how Cubans, as immigrants, incorporate their traditions in American society, in comparison to other immigrant groups in the United States. In addition, she emphasized that Cuban migration waves are a revolution result, not only political and economic, but also cognitive and emotive. Today, the Cuban community in the United States is particularly heterogeneous, with dramatic contrasts in social characteristics and political apathy. The first wave of immigrants, the golden exile, established an economic and cultural foundations, which have facilitated the adjustment of other waves of immigrants. The Cuban immigrants and their
There is no doubt that urban agriculture has many benefits people who are living in urban area especially fixing the food insecurity problem. According to the USDA Economic Research Service (2016), food insecurity can happened when a household loss access to fresh foods due the lack in social and low economic. When the population of people concentrated in an area with bad economic situation increases, it will later affects the employment opportunities and food insecurity might be a critical issue. This is supported by a
In the 1950’s, tourists visited the island of Cuba for its warm beaches, culture and Spanish colonial architecture. But underneath the surface, was a revolution ready to burst through the Cuban people they just needed the right person to lead them. Cuba at this time was run by a Political Dictator named Fulgencio Batista.
Until sugar production made Cuba the wealthiest agricultural region on earth in the nineteenth century, the island was considered relatively diverse, compared to others in the Caribbean. The quality of soil was universally unparalleled, and gained countries interest. Although the French and Spanish were in feud over the island, merchants from Portugal, England, and Holland participated in trade, which brought diversity to Cuba. At the end of the eighteenth century, the Haitian Revolution changed the racial, social, and economical demographics on Cuba. Seeing that the Haitian revolution was a triumph of colossus proportions, the individuals who started it, embodied the spirit that initiated the great uprising. From the late eighteenth century, into the nineteenth century, formally freed slaved from Haiti migrated to Cuba in astonishing numbers. This not only altered the demographics on the island, it brought in a new workforce that proliferated local sugar production. Within a short period of time, Cuba became the biggest sugar cane producer in the world. The United States gained interest in capitalizing from the islands newfound wealth, and being close in proximity made the temptation of interfere with France and Spain irresistible. In the late nineteenth century, the United States interfered with Cuba’s fight for independence and increased their investments tenfold. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the US gained control of the island through ownership,
In fact, it is also necessary for governmental bodies to become involved in promoting localized food such as policies and labelling laws that encourage healthier eating and food re-localization. In addition, regulations to foster sustainable food production are essential. Moreover, in the movie Cuban, the Accidental Revolution, David Suzuki, introduces how the government’s vision becomes one with the farmers, that there is a possibility for the industrial food system to work together. For example, Cuban agronomists describe the benefits of crop rotation for soil health, while Cuban farmers express pleasure with the relative productivity and profitability of their ecological and somehow newly industrialized farming systems. By inventing a new way to create food and working with nature, profit is gained and diversity is generated leading the country to possess the largest national program in sustainable agriculture. With the government’s assistance, farmers learn to do more with less and growing food as a community becomes more a passion that profits. In his article, Wes Jackson also supports the idea of finding a new way to create food without technology and science. Instead of focusing mainly on the local food systems, he emphasizes that by using all the knowledge acquired from the pioneers and their cleverness, we can build domestic prairies that have high-yielding fields that are planted only once every twenty years. It is not the entire answer to the total agriculture problems, but breeding new crops from native plants selected from nature’s abundance and simulating the resettlement botanical complexity of a region should make it easier to solve many agricultural problems (40). The share to work side by side with nature may be one of the solution to establish a new sea of perennial prairie
In the year 1959 a politician named Fidel Castro led a revolution against the Cuban government under Fulgencio Batista.
In the Treaty of Paris of 1898, Spain relinquished all sovereignty over Cuba. For a time, the policy of the United States toward Cuba was somewhat ambivalent. The Teller Amendment at the beginning of the Spanish-American War had pledged the restoration of Cuba to the Cubans. However, at the same time the United States was determined that it would not be placed after the war with Spain in a worse position in regard to its vital interests in Cuba than it had been when Cuba was a Spanish possession.
Cuba, officially known as the Republic of Cuba (which it, most assuredly, is not), is a large island nation located in the northern part of the Caribbean Sea, closer to the United States than Latin America. Historically, Cuba was inhabited by indigenous Americans, of which the Taíno comprised the dominant culture on the island (Dacal Moure and Rivero de la Calle, 1996). From the time of Columbus until 1898, Cuba was governed by Spain, and its agricultural economy relied on the importation of African slaves (Suchlicki, 2002). The people of Cuba are, at this time, an intermixture of these three ethnic groups, though people with lighter colored skin are generally in the higher socioeconomic strata, meaning which in Cuba means either professionals
Current events in Cuba have caught a lot of attention, as we witness a historical shift in
From their end, Cuba has surprised many around the world for striving against such barriers. “ The main driver of the Cuban economy is agriculture. The country is a major producer of several crops but sugar and tobacco are the big money products. Despite not being able to export their products to the United States Cuba has become a major exporter of agricultural products. There has been an attempt on the part of the Cuban government to diversify their economy and it looks like natural resources will be one way that they can do this. The country has become a major nickel producer and this has quickly become one of their largest exports. There is also the potential for Cuba to become a major oil producer. There are large reserves of oil in the Caribbean that are in Cuba's territorial water. It is very likely that in the near future they will take advantage of these reserves in order to help diversify the economy.”
It also says that shops will have a large range of products, however there are still large shortages of food. Rations are sometimes not even guaranteed to be delivered and if they are they will be very late. In 1991 the grain supply to Cuba from the Soviet Union since it collapsed which also caused the cattle to not be able to be fed. Since they could not feed the cattle all of the products and bi-products were very rare like the milk, beef, and eggs and chicken. Since a lot of the fuel was in a shortage the crops had to be harvested by people which made the production of food slow to crawl. They have improved the production but the shortage is still very common and no they are starting to resort to non-rationed stores and even the black market. The actual food/cuisines of Cuba come from many cultures like the Spanish, Africans and Caribbean, One very small part but slight influence is from the Chinese also. Some of the most popular foods include varieties of meat and rice with black beans. The traditional type of Cuban food can also be called criollo. Some of the most common spices and seasonings used are things like garlic and onion and common ingredients are things like lettuce, pork, eggs and tomatoes and more. One product of Cuba is also Coffee which is normally sold to other places and the coffee that Cubans normally drink are from places like
January 23 of 1898, numbers of Cuban rebellion is growing and more and more Cubans were coming to the United States through Florida. At the same time, European countries were building empires. Thus more and more americans and I feared that the United States will become overpowered by those great nation and become ineffective. Republicans especially feared that if the United States does not start strengthening our military and gain territories overseas we will soon become nobodies in the eyes of the great European nations. I was informed that in Cuba, natives were be being murdered by the spanish governments for expressing their genuine grievances. The spanish government not once tried to calm the rebellions peacefully, instead they slaughtered them by hundredth. The conflict between Cuba and Spain was heating up, the business and citizens of the United States in Cuba were
, and tobacco, for 60 years this has been Cuba’s calling cards, a land that hasn’t progressed much in six decades Cuba has stood as a vacation paradise for many of the worlds powerful nations, including Europe, Canada, and Australia. Most people who visit Cuba rarely see past the white sands, blue water, and endless alcohol of resorts, going off said resorts will give an entirely different view of the country. A people of farmers, musicians, and artisans, the Cuban people are a simple and hard working group all looking. For 60 years the Cuban government has kept the United States out of the country for the most part, that is until recently. During the cold war, Cuba joined the communist nations and went as far to allow Russian missiles to be placed on Cuban soil this was seen as a threat to American interests, causing John F. Kennedy to impose an embargo on the small nation just 80 miles away from Florida. With the Obama administration now lifting these embargos this can be viewed as both a positive and a negative thing to the county. While yes opening up Cuba to America will do wonders for it economically, I believe that culturally the country will suffer greatly. Often when American influence is permitted into a country there is often corruption that follows, Industrial corruption, cultural bullying, and the influx of drugs, are all issues that seem to follow whenever America enters a former enemy state. While yes from an economic stand point the country may do well,
Cuba. The well-known island all over the world and located ninety miles south of Florida is the largest island of the West Indies. The island is popular for its natural beauty and cultural heritages. After the Cuban revolution that took place in 1950s, Batista regime was overthrown and new government was formed which was led by Fidel Castro. Since then Cuba was ruled by Fidel Castro until recently. In 2008, because of Fidel Castro’s illness, his brother Raul Castro replaced him. Many Cubans supported the Cuban revolution in the hope of seeing changes in Cuba; however after Castro seized the power in 1959, many left Cuba to find the better life and live free from the communist government in Cuba.
The Cuban revolution was the spark that ignited the flame of communism in Cuba. The developing nation gained independence only as recently as 1898, and was already filled with an atmosphere of distrust and resentment towards the United States. In July of 1953, a revolution began in Cuba between the United States backed President Batista and Fidel Castro. Fidel and his brother Raul Castro lead a series of guerilla warfare battles against the forces of President Batista. “I am Fidel Castro and we have come to liberate Cuba,” stated Fidel Castro. In January of 1959, Fidel Castro became the President of Cuba. With the regime of Fidel Castro, Cuba would fall to communism.