Emulating Cuba's Urban Agriculture

Not sure if that's how the saying goes, "act locally, think globally", but I think it's a romantic notion. I just joined about a week ago and I'm going to put my foot in my mouth. I live in the desert west part of texas, so there's not a lot of things you can grow that I can buy locally. I can buy wheat, milo (sorghum), oats, and beef, lamb, goat or venison. I think a good bit of food was taken out of the food chain when Willie Nelson thought they should close down the horse slaughter plants. I don't believe in animal cruelty, but now old horses will either be euthanized and brought to the soap factory, neglected by people who are too lazy or cheap to bring them to a vet to be euthanized, or simply drug off to the back pasture for the buzzards to pick the bones clean. Suffice it to say, nobody is raising horses with the sole purpose being human consumptions. There used to be a market of people who were willing to buy a product for consumption, even if we find it disgusting. Remember, Hindus aren't probably thrilled about the chance they'll be eaten by an american if they're reincarnated as a cow, but I digress... Back to what I was saying, there are almost NO vegetables that you can grow here without MUCH supplemental irrigation. My parents farmed, I used to farm, and when my parents were kids, they sold meat to the grocery and ate the offal parts that were unsaleable. I had a friend in Colombia who ate goose eggs because they were not as valuable for sale as chicken eggs. I am under 45 years old, and I can remember a time when we only had apples a couple times a year. If you drink coffee anywhere else in the USA besides Hawaii, you are not "acting locally, thinking globally". Lots of freight involved. We live EXTREMELY charmed lives in the USA (and I mean you Canadian dudes too) when it comes to food availability/safety. Jim Hightower was agriculture commissioner of Texas about 15 years ago, and he had the romantic idea that all farmers should set up roadside fruit and berry stands. One of his field agents once told me that Hightower told him that "I could get more votes in Harris County (houston) by preaching on a street corner (populism) than by f-ing with a bunch of farmers".

Enough of the soapbox. I believe that subsistence agriculture is just this, "doing what you have to do to survive". Remember, the people in Nicaragua can't simply get tired of being farmers and go back to work in the USA (no visa) as a fireman, engineer, programmer, or Sears shoe salesman. In their case, raising crops might resemble an organic process simply because they can't AFFORD the chemicals to control pests.

A nice place to see programs on subsistence agriculture is the program "La Finca de Hoy" on Caracol TV (colombia). Very informative, interesting, how to make do when you can't afford much equipment. Also has info on cost per hectare/manzana of fertilizer, seed, plants, chemicals, or fish for aquaculture.

I'll shut up now

nickoftime

"The basic issue is restoring fertility, the importance of producing compost, organic fertilizers, humus created by worms,"

"He says there are now 300,000 people employed directly in urban agriculture without counting those who are raising organic produce in their backyards as part of a State-encouraged grassroots movement. In all, Rodriguez claims nearly a million people are getting their hands dirty organically."

No expensive petro-chemicals, no fuel for tractors, no soil compaction from heavy equipment, grown locally; no fuel to transport the produce to market.

Talk to Big Agri type folks about what Cuba is doing and you will hear "can't be done", "organic is not sustainable", blah,blah,blah. But they never look very closely, it's being done all over the world, everyday. Sustainable organic is the future, and it tastes better, too.

No reason it could not happen in Nicaragua too.

-Doug ©

If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate

"...usually within walking distance of those who will consume them.”

This really does sound like small scale farming. I would be willing to bet CBS just repackaged "subsistance farming" to make it look more appealing as "organic agriculture". If somone just throws some seeds into the ground in thier backyard, isn't that organic agriculture?

1st Capt. Ron (Title by Miskito Alan)