Cuba: Sustainable Agriculture and Urban Gardens Trip

Below is a "backwards" diary of my Cuba trip. The focus of the trip was Cuba's sustainable agricultural production practices. Cuba has been ramping ups such practices since the collapse of the USSR in the early 90's. At the time the USSR was Cuba's sole supplier of agriculture inputs like pesticides and fertilizer. Moreover, if the U.S. embargo wasn't also in place then Cuba probably would have sought inputs elsewhere. But instead, out of necessity, they returned to basic agricultural practices, and as far as I could tell have succeeded. No telling what will happen to these practices if, and when, the U.S. embargo is lifted.

My biggest "wow' of the entire trip: Cuba isn't a bad off economically as the Western media presents it to be. I read a news articles before embarking on the trip. The articles portrayed Cuba as a grim place and alleged Cubans had to wait in lines to purchase toilet paper, food, etc. If they did, I certainly didn't see any such lines.

I visited Poland for two and a half months in 1987, and worked on a state-owned farm while there. And there I saw the shortages firsthand. Cuba is nothing compared to communist Poland in the 1980's. Then again, it may be that my experience in Poland may have distorted my initial expectation of Cuba. I was expecting worse.

My second biggest "wow": Cuba’s ability to produce food organically in urban gardens and provide a fresh source of food to the local communities. Without inputs and pesticides, Cuban farmers turned to organic production and seem to be doing a good job at it.

The only negative aspect of the low-input farming was the fact that 20% of the population was employed by the agriculture sector, but the sector only generated 5% of the nation's income. Some might claim the sector was highly inefficient. Others might claims the health and environmental benefits of local, organic production outweigh the inefficiency.

Overall, Cuba is a functioning society with different set of values and objectives than a capitalist society like the U.S. And yes the country may appear to be stuck in the 50's and in need of some capital improvements, but it is certainly not in a dire economic condition. One of our host said it best: "Cuba's society isn't perfect, but they are trying". Essentially the same can be said about the U.S. Based on my observations, I don't believe there is a perfect society, just different.

I'd encourage anyone interesting in visiting Cuba to do so. I'd like to return someday. Two things, I wish I could have done, but they weren't part of our agenda was scuba diving and cycling. Maybe next time. If you're interested in visiting Cuba, Reality Tours offers a number of trips for a number of different professions.