[Sdpg] The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived (Permaculture Story)

[Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

<http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=973>The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived

http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=973

Filed under: <http://www.socialistunity.com/?cat=70>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 
<http://www.permacultureactivist.net/>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 
<mailto:megan at communitysolution.org>megan at communitysolution.org 
, or call 937-767-2161.


Santa Barbara Permaculture Network
(805) 962-2571
P.O. Box 92156, Santa Barbara, CA 93190
margie at sbpermaculture.org
www.sbpermaculture.org

"We are like trees, we must create new leaves, in 
new directions, in order to grow." - Anonymous

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