http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=973
Filed under: Cuba
Andy @ 1:16 am
By Megan Quinn
In Brief: “Try to image an airplane suddenly losing its engines. It
was really a crash”… A crash that put Cuba into a state of shock. There
were frequent blackouts in its oil-fed electric power grid, up to 16
hours per day. The average daily caloric intake in Cuba dropped by a
third… So Cubans started to grow local organic produce out of necessity,
developed bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers as petrochemical
substitutes, and incorporated more fruits and vegetables into their
diets. Since they couldn’t fuel their aging cars, they walked, biked,
rode buses, and carpooled.
Havana, Cuba At the Organipónico de Alamar, a neighborhood
agriculture project, a workers’ collective runs a large urban farm, a
produce market and a restaurant. Hand tools and human labor replace
oil-driven machinery. Worm cultivation and composting create productive
soil. Drip irrigation conserves water, and the diverse, multi-hued
produce provides the community with a rainbow of healthy foods.
In other Havana neighborhoods, lacking enough land for such large
projects, residents have installed raised garden beds on parking lots and
planted vegetable gardens on their patios and rooftops.
Since the early 1990s, an urban agriculture movement has swept through
Cuba, putting this capital city of 2.2 million on a path toward
sustainability.
A small group of Australians assisted in this grass-roots effort, coming
to this Caribbean island nation in 1993 to teach permaculture, a system
based on sustainable agriculture which uses far less energy.
This need to bring agriculture into the city began with the fall of the
Soviet Union and the loss of more than 50 percent of Cuba’s oil imports,
much of its food and 85 percent of its trade economy. Transportation
halted, people went hungry and the average Cuban lost 30 pounds.
“In reality, when this all began, it was a necessity. People had to start
cultivating vegetables wherever they could,” a tour guide told a
documentary crew filming in Cuba in 2004 to record how Cuba survived on
far less oil than usual.
The crew included the staff of The Community Solution, a non-profit
organization in Yellow Springs, Ohio which teaches about peak oil – the
time when oil production world-wide will reach an all-time high and head
into an irreversible decline. Some oil analysts believe this may happen
within this decade, making Cuba a role model to follow.
“We wanted to see if we could capture what it is in the Cuban people and
the Cuban culture that allowed them to go through this very difficult
time,” said Pat Murphy, The Community Solution’s executive director.
“Cuba has a lot to show the world in how to deal with energy
adversity.”
Scarce petroleum supplies have not only transformed Cuba’s agriculture.
The nation has also moved toward small-scale renewable energy and
developed an energy-saving mass transit system, while maintaining its
government-provided health care system whose preventive, locally-based
approach to medicine conserves scarce resources.
The era in Cuba following the Soviet collapse is known to Cubans as the
Special Period. Cuba lost 80 percent of its export market and its imports
fell by 80 percent. The Gross Domestic Product dropped by more than one
third.
“Try to image an airplane suddenly losing its engines. It was really a
crash,” Jorge Mario, a Cuban economist, told the documentary crew. A
crash that put Cuba into a state of shock. There were frequent blackouts
in its oil-fed electric power grid, up to 16 hours per day. The average
daily caloric intake in Cuba dropped by a third.
According to a report on Cuba from Oxfam, an international development
and relief agency, “In the cities, buses stopped running, generators
stopped producing electricity, factories became silent as graveyards.
Obtaining enough food for the day became the primary activity for many,
if not most, Cubans.”
In part due to the continuing US embargo, but also because of the loss of
a foreign market, Cuba couldn’t obtain enough imported food. Furthermore,
without a substitute for fossil-fuel based large-scale farming,
agricultural production dropped drastically.
So Cubans started to grow local organic produce out of necessity,
developed bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers as petrochemical
substitutes, and incorporated more fruits and vegetables into their
diets. Since they couldn’t fuel their aging cars, they walked, biked,
rode buses, and carpooled.
“There are infinite small solutions,” said Roberto Sanchez from the
Cuban-based Foundation for Nature and Humanity. “Crises or changes or
problems can trigger many of these things which are basically adaptive.
We are adapting.”
A New Agricultural Revolution
Cubans are also replacing petroleum-fed machinery with oxen, and
their urban agriculture reduces food transportation distances. Today an
estimated 50 percent of Havana’s vegetables come from inside the city,
while in other Cuban towns and cities urban gardens produce from 80
percent to more than 100 percent of what they need.
In turning to gardening, individuals and neighborhood organizations took
the initiative by identifying idle land in the city, cleaning it up, and
planting.
Photo: Farmers pose with their produce at a farmers’ market in
downtown Havana. The Cuban government now allows these private markets,
which provide year-round fresh local food to the community. ( by John
Morgan)
When the Australian permaculturists came to Cuba they set up the
first permaculture demonstration project with a $26,000 grant from the
Cuban government.
Out of this grew the Foundation for Nature and Humanity’s urban
permaculture demonstration project and center in Havana. “With this
demonstration, neighbors began to see the possibilities of what they can
do on their rooftops and their patios,” said Carmen López, director of
the urban permaculture center, as she stood on the center’s rooftop
amongst grape vines, potted plants, and compost bins made from
tires.
Since then the movement has been spreading rapidly across Havana’s
barrios. So far López’ urban permaculture center has trained more than
400 people in the neighborhood in permaculture and distributes a monthly
publication, “El Permacultor.” “Not only has the community learned about
permaculture,” according to López, “we have also learned about the
community, helping people wherever there is need.”
One permaculture student, Nelson Aguila, an engineer-turned-farmer,
raises food for the neighborhood on his integrated rooftop farm. On just
a few hundred square feet he has rabbits and hens and many large pots of
plants. Running free on the floor are gerbils, which eat the waste from
the rabbits, and become an important protein source themselves. “Things
are changing,” Sanchez said. “It’s a local economy. In other places
people don’t know their neighbors. They don’t know their names. People
don’t say ‘hello’ to each other. Not here.”
Since going from petrochemical intensive agricultural production to
organic farming and gardening, Cuba now uses 21 times less pesticide than
before the Special Period. They have accomplished this with their
large-scale production of bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers, exporting
some of it to other Latin American countries.
Though the transition to organic production and animal traction was
necessary, the Cubans are now seeing the advantages. “One of the good
parts of the crisis was to go back to the oxen,” said Miguel Coyula, a
community development specialist, “Not only do they save fuel, they do
not compact the soil the way the tractor does, and the legs of the oxen
churn the earth.”
“The Cuban agricultural, conventional, ‘Green Revolution’ system never
was able to feed the people,” Sanchez said. “It had high yields, but was
oriented to plantation agriculture. We exported citrus, tobacco, sugar
cane and we imported the basic things. So the system, even in the good
times, never fulfilled people’s basic needs.”
Drawing on his permaculture knowledge, Sanchez said, “You have to follow
the natural cycles, so you hire nature to work for you, not work against
nature. To work against nature, you have to waste huge amounts of
energy.”
Energy Solutions
Because most of Cuba’s electricity had been generated from imported
oil, the shortages affected nearly everyone on the island. Scheduled
rolling blackouts several days per week lasted for many years. Without
refrigerators, food would spoil. Without electric fans, the heat was
almost unbearable in a country that regularly has temperatures in the 80s
and 90s.
The solutions to Cuba’s energy problems were not easy. Without money, it
couldn’t invest in nuclear power and new conventional fossil fuel plants
or even large-scale wind and solar energy systems. Instead, the country
focused on reducing energy consumption and implementing small-scale
renewable energy projects.
Ecosol Solar and Cuba Solar are two renewable energy organizations
leading the way. They help develop markets for renewable energy, sell and
install systems, perform research, publish newsletters, and do energy
efficiency studies for large users.
Ecosol Solar has installed 1.2 megawatts of solar photovoltaic in both
small household systems (200 watt capacity) and large systems (15-50
kilowatt capacity). In the United States 1.2 megawatts would provide
electricity to about 1000 homes, but can supply power to significantly
more houses in Cuba where appliances are few, conservation is the custom,
and the homes are much smaller.
About 60 percent of Ecosol Solar’s installations go to social programs to
power homes, schools, medicals facilities, and community centers in rural
Cuba. It recently installed solar photovoltaic panels to electrify 2,364
primary schools throughout rural Cuba where it was not cost effective to
take the grid. In addition, it is developing compact model solar water
heaters that can be assembled in the field, water pumps powered by PV
panels, and solar dryers.
A visit to “Los Tumbos,” a solar-powered community in the rural hills
southwest of Havana demonstrates the positive impact that these
strategies can have. Once without electricity, each household now has a
small solar panel that powers a radio and a lamp. Larger systems provide
electricity to the school, hospital, and community room, where residents
gather to watch the evening news program called the “Round Table.”
Besides keeping the residents informed, the television room has the added
benefit of bringing the community together.
“The sun was enough to maintain life on earth for millions of years,”
said Bruno Beres, a director of Cuba Solar. “Only when we [humans]
arrived and changed the way we use energy was the sun not enough. So the
problem is with our society, not with the world of energy.”
Transportation - A System of Ride Sharing
Cubans also faced the problem of providing transportation on a
reduced energy diet. Solutions came from ingenious Cubans, who often
quote the phrase, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” With little
money or fuel, Cuba now moves masses of people during rush hour in
Havana. In an inventive approach, virtually every form of vehicle, large
and small, was used to build this mass transit system. Commuters ride in
hand-made wheelbarrows, buses, other motorized transport and
animal-powered vehicles.
Photo: This unique Cuban transport vehicle, called a “camel”, can
carry 300 passengers. (by John Morgan)
One special Havana transit vehicle, nicknamed a “camel,” is a very
large metal semi-trailer, pulled by a standard semi-truck tractor, which
holds 300 passengers. Bicycles and motorized two-passenger rickshaws are
also prevalent in Havana, while horse drawn carts and large old panel
trucks are used in the smaller towns.
Government officials in yellow garb pull over nearly empty government
vehicles and trucks on Havana’s streets and fill them with people needing
a ride. Chevys from the 1950s cruise along with four people in front and
four more in back.
A donkey cart with a taxi license nailed to the frame also travels Cuba’s
streets. Many trucks were converted to passenger transport by welding
steps to the back so riders could get on and off with ease.
Health Care and Education - National Priorities
Even though Cuba is a poor country, with a per capita Gross Domestic
Product of only $3,000 per year (putting them in the bottom third of all
nations), life expectancy is the same as in the U.S., and infant
mortality is below that in the U.S. The literacy rate in Cuba is 97
percent, the same as in the U.S. Cuba’s education system, as well as its
medical system is free.
When Cubans suffered through their version of a peak oil crisis, they
maintained their free medical system, one of the major factors that
helped them to survive. Cubans repeatedly emphasize how proud they are of
their system.
Before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, there was one doctor for every 2000
people. Now there is a doctor for every 167 people. Cuba also has an
international medical school and trains doctors to work in other poor
countries. Each year there are 20,000 Cuban doctors abroad doing this
kind of work.
With meat scarce and fresh local vegetables in abundance since 1995,
Cubans now eat a healthy, low-fat, nearly vegetarian, diet. They also
have a healthier outdoor lifestyle and walking and bicycling have become
much more common. “Before, Cubans didn’t eat that many vegetables. Rice
and beans and pork meat was the basic diet,” Sanchez from the Foundation
for Nature and Humanity said. “At some point necessity taught them, and
now they demand [vegetables].”
Doctors and nurses live in the community where they work and usually
above the clinic itself. In remote rural areas, three-story buildings are
constructed with the doctor’s office on the bottom floor and two
apartments on the second and third floors, one for the doctor and one for
the nurse.
In the cities, the doctors and nurses always live in the neighborhoods
they serve. They know the families of their patients and try to treat
people in their homes. “Medicine is a vocation, not a job,” exclaimed a
Havana doctor, demonstrating the motivation for her work. In Cuba 60
percent of the doctors are women.
Education is considered the most important social activity in Cuba.
Before the revolution, there was one teacher for every 3,000 people.
Today the ratio is one for every 42 people, with a teacher-student ratio
of 1 to 16. Cuba has a higher percentage of professionals than most
developing countries, and with 2 percent of the population of Latin
America, Cuba has 11 percent of all the scientists.
In an effort to halt migration from the countryside to the city during
the Special Period, higher education was spread out into the provinces,
expanding learning opportunities and strengthening rural communities.
Before the Special Period there were only three institutions of higher
learning in Cuba. Now there are 50 colleges and universities throughout
the country, seven in Havana.
The Power of Community
Throughout its travels, the documentary crew saw and experienced the
resourcefulness, determination, and optimism of the Cuban people, often
hearing the phrase “Sí, se puede” or “Yes it can be done.”
People spoke of the value of “resistir” or “resistance,” showing their
determination to overcome obstacles. And they have lived under a U.S.
economic blockade since the early 1960s, viewed as the ultimate test of
the Cuban ability to resist.
There is much to learn from Cuba’s response to the loss of cheap and
abundant oil. The staff of The Community Solution sees these lessons as
especially important for people in developing countries, who make up 82
percent of the world’s population and live more on life’s edge. But
developed countries are also vulnerable to shortages in energy. And with
the coming onset of peak oil, all countries will have to adapt to the
reality of a lower energy world.
With this new reality, the Cuban government changed its 30-year motto
from “Socialism or Death” to “A Better World is Possible.” Government
officials allowed private entrepreneurial farmers and neighborhood
organizations to use public land to grow and sell their produce. They
pushed decision-making down to the grassroots level and encouraged
initiatives in their neighborhoods. They created more provinces. They
encouraged migration back to the farms and rural areas and reorganized
their provinces to be in-line with agricultural needs.
From The Community Solution’s viewpoint, Cuba did what it could to
survive, despite its ideology of a centralized economy. In the face of
peak oil and declining oil production, will America do what it takes to
survive, in spite of its ideology of individualism and consumerism? Will
Americans come together in community, as Cubans did, in the spirit of
sacrifice and mutual support?
“There is climate change, the price of oil, the crisis of energy …” Beres
from Cuba Solar said, listing off the challenges humanity faces. “What we
must know is that the world is changing and we must change the way we see
the world.”
This article appeared in the special Peak Oil issue of
Permaculture Activist,
Spring 2006. The author, Megan Quinn, is the outreach director for The
Community Solution, a program of Community Service Inc., a nonprofit
organization in Yellow Springs, Ohio. For information about its
soon-to-be-released documentary, “The Power of Community: How Cuba
Survived Peak Oil” visit its website, e-mail her at
megan@communitysolution.org , or call 937-767-2161.
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie@sbpermaculture.org
www.sbpermaculture.org
"We are like trees,
we must create new leaves, in new directions, in order to grow." -
Anonymous