Urban Agriculture Contributes Half of Cuba's Vegetable Production

[Judi Lynn]

Urban Agriculture Contributes Half of Cuba's Vegetable Production
17/34/Y



Havana, April 17 (RHC) – Urban and family gardening contributes 50 percent of the country´s vegetable production with over one million Cubans involved in this developing initiative.

During the closing session of the Second International Congress on Urban and Family Gardening, held in Havana, Cuban Agriculture minister Gustavo Rodriguez said that the initiative has helped create more than 300 thousand jobs.

Given difficulties in traditional agriculture models, the country is developing ecological agriculture, which is consolidating as a movement that includes local producers linked to the advancement of science and technology.

Organic or ecological agriculture is playing a main role amidst food production efforts, given the initiative of making idle lands productive, creating new jobs and developing a healthy food culture.

http://www.radiohc.cu/en/noticias/nacionales/53020-urban-agriculture-contributes-half-of-cuba's-vegetable-production

[Blue Meany]

1. This started with the collapse of the Soviet

Union, which cut off their supply of subsidized oil. Before that that, the oil inputs into their agriculture (fertilizers and pesticides derived from oil, as well as transport of produce) were worse than the US, which is bad. Having centralized planning and a government that owns the land provided them with a real advantage in making the transition. We will have a much harder time achieving this in the US.