Cuba agrees to buy powdered milk (from Vermont)

[Mika]

Cuba agrees to buy powdered milk
http://www.timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041118/NEWS/411180303/1003/NEWS02

MONTPELIER — Vermont has completed a deal to sell $6 million in powdered milk to Cuba, state Agriculture Secretary Steve Kerr said.

Kerr said Cuba has agreed to purchase 3,000 metric tons of powdered milk through DairyAmerica, a California-based marketing cooperative. Part of the milk will come from the St. Albans Co-op in St. Albans and Agri-Mark, the state's two major dairy cooperatives.

-

"The plan is to sign the contract in mid-December during this next trade fair (in Havana)," said Kerr, who returned last week from a trade mission to Cuba.

Kerr also said that he is getting very close to a deal to sell the island nation 2,000 bushels of McIntosh apples valued at $40,000. He said final approval from the Cubans could come within days. If that happens, as Kerr expects, Cuban inspectors would come to Vermont next month to inspect the orchard's storage facility.

The deal for powdered milk and the pending deal for apples follow a successful effort by Kerr to sell the country dairy cattle. Cuba signed a contract in Havana two weeks ago to purchase 50 registered Holsteins and 50 registered Jerseys from Vermont farmers. That deal has been valued at $160,000 to $220,000.

FYI - This deal is in cash.


Cuba: The only country the US has a trade surplus with. :)

[radar]

1. ...And from a "blue state" even.

[Anakin Skywalker]

12. Castro Knows.

He's not going to give money to the red staters who hate him. It's called spending one's money WISELY!

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Vermont had better watch out, or

it's going to get its ass liberated from the yolk of the likes of Bernie Sanders and Howard Dean.

[cali]

3. Huh?

Not sure what you mean. Last year our repub Lt. Gov went to cuba to try and sell them vt ag products.

[Minstrel Boy]

4. I'm just sayin'

some folks won't cotton to New Englanders doing bidness with a known terrist state.

And of course: </sarcasm>

[cali]

5. And to them Vermonters blithely say

go cheney yourself. Man, it's nice living in the bluest state in the union- and a rural blue state, at that.

[wicket]

7. I miss Vermont so much

I was born there and lived there all my life until the late 90's when I moved to Boston for college. I try to get back there at least once a month to see my family and the farm and such :)

[DrZeeLit]

18. Yes! I love living in Vermont!!!!! Blue blue blue blue blue!

And proud of it!
Go Bernie!
Go Leahy!
Go Jeffords!
Go Dean!

And... we have... PAPER BALLOTS!
Hand counted and complete on the evening of the election!

And now.... we have... CUBA!

Yes, I am proud to be a Vermonter!

[Mika]

6. They must be the same folks..

.. who voted for Bush because he is a known moral leader. :eyes:

[ozone_man]

21. That was a surprise to me.

To see our Republican Lt. Governor accomplish this, primarily because he is not a liberal Republican like Gov. Douglas. Shows that they put partisan politics aside to represent Vermont farmers' interests. Both were re-elected by wide margins.

[NorthernSpy]

13. liberated from the yolk

Err... make that yoke. I'm getting an image of the state of Vermont struggling under a gigantic tyrant egg.

:D

[Bridget Burke]

8. Most US farmers would love to sell to Cuba.

Their associations have come out against the imbargo. Glad the Yankees had the guts to be proactive.

[Mika]

9. The US embargo has cost US agriculture several billion $$

Yet another example of how the extremist minority hurts the US economy.

[flordehinojos]

10. hey, isn't there a u.s. embargo against cuba?

they won't even let family go visit family except for a very measured amount of time and within a very measured amount of time? what does vermont have over bush's head?

[cali]

14. Nothing. I think there are certain trade exemptions

for some ag products.

[Judi Lynn]

22. There was an all out embargo until Hurricane Michelle wiped Cuba out

of essential food supplies. Here's an article from that time, describing the start up of a very limited area of trade between Cuba and the U.S.:

Sunday, 16 December, 2001, 21:06 GMT
US food arrives in Cuba


The sale is seen as a one-off response to the hurricane

A freighter carrying the first commercial shipment of food from the United States to Cuba in nearly 40 years has docked in the port of Havana.
The Florida-based MV Express, carrying 500 tonnes of frozen chicken, arrived with little fanfare.

It was followed by another ship - the Mexican-flagged Ikan Mazatlan, carrying 24,000 tonnes of US corn - which had been expected to dock first.
(snip)

The US - which imposed a trade embargo on Cuba in 1962 - authorised the commercial shipment in response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Michelle to the Caribbean island last month.

Several more ships are due in Cuba in the next few weeks, carrying wheat, soya beans, rice and corn.

The US Congress passed a law last year allowing American companies to sell products to Cuba on a humanitarian basis.
(snip/...)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1714776.stm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This was a very exciting event for people who had been watching U.S./Cuba relations, like those of us who were awakened to Cuba's situation only after Elián Gonzalez was held captive in Miami by his drunken great-uncle and his eccentric family.

[flordehinojos]

23. thank you for the update and the article on the shipment of food to Cuba

on a humanitarian basis, Judi Lynn. It feels good to be informed and know some facts... as for little Elián Gonzalez you have no idea how many letters i wrote to tom fiedler and the rest of the Miami Herald stating that Elian's grieving would not begin until he was in his father's arms and not one of them took the position that Elián needed to be returned to his father. In fact several of them responded to my e-mails saying that I was a Clintonista etc., etc., etc. And I am still speechless over the fact that Ilean Ros-Lehtinen, herself a mother of two girls and a student of Early Childhood Education would have the chutzpah to stand next to all those kidnappers of Elián here in Miami saying that he did not need to be returned to his father.

When the army psychiatrist who accompanied Elián on his flight from Miami to Virginia, I think it was where he met his father, described how Elián and his father (along with everyone else who was on that plane)started to cry when they saw each other and his father picked him up .... I felt Great! and I said, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I have always admired Janet Reno's courage for doing the right thing. She, by the way, must be purple looking at all of the outrageous things that john ashcroft has said and done since she left office.

And, lastly, thank you again for the update and the article on the Cuban embargo...and as you see, the Elian thing still touches my buttons (neither my husband nor I have returned to Miami since the Elian Gonzalez saga).

[Mika]

11. Garrison Keillor will be able to do a powdered milk ad parody in Cuba now.

Cuba: The only country the US has a trade surplus with. :)

[Merlin]

28. LOL! Thought the same thing the instant I read the headline.

Has YOUR family tried powdered milk?

[robcon]

15. Despite embargo, the U.S. is the fourth largest exporter to Cuba

after Spain, Venezuela and Italy.

The stupid, self-defeating embargo is an embarassment to the U.S. - or should be.

[Mika]

16. Agreed.

"The stupid, self-defeating embargo is an embarassment to the U.S. - or should be."

Right on & amen. :thumbsup:

[Judi Lynn]

20. Now you're talking!

Guy in Havana

[Niccolo_Macchiavelli]

17. Way to go to repatriate the now unused US$$$

and get some food and Macs.

[DrZeeLit]

19. p.s. The only way to "liberate" Cuba is to flood them with products from

the "fabulous" USA.... you know... Levis, McDonalds, Starbucks, and Walmart.

Once the money is flowing, it's all over.

How come we (meaning any admin) don't get that?
Isn't capitalism what eventually ended the USSR?

I've always wondered about this.
AND...from the looks of it... nobody (repub/dem) seems to need the Cuban vote in Florida any more. Seems their fighting over the fundaMentals and the seniors these days.

Sooo...open up, Cuba... Here. We. Come! (ready or not!)

[Mika]

24. Um.. Cuba is open. Its our gov that prevents us from going

"Sooo...open up, Cuba..."


Cuba is already open to the rest of the world. If you could go there you would see people and businesses from all over this planet.

Americans don't possess some magical power that will suddenly destroy or drastically change Cubañia (unless America invades militarily).

Cubans run Cuba, not Castro. Cuba will move forward as Cubans want it to.

All that Cuba needs is more tourism earnings. That would be Cuba's greatest benefit from the ending of the US gov travel ban on Americans.


-


"Here. We. Come! (ready or not!)"


They have been SCREAMING for decades that they are ready!

Will we listen? Are you listening?


Cuba is ready.



:hi:

[sandnsea]

25. Cuban defections

Why'd a bunch of Cubans just defect? If it's open, why can't they just leave?

[Judi Lynn]

26. Probably fleeing for their life, right?

You don't imagine it has anything in common with the baseball players who arrive here from Cuba and Puerto Rico, etc. who step into more money than they can imagine?

The only work involved is allowing the Cuban "exiles" to make the arrangements, then comply with it. They bypass waiting for individual visas, and sidestep the chance of being denied for one reason or another by the U.S.. Not too hard to grasp, is it?

I've never been able to understand what all the hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans and Caribbean Island citizens are running from when they actually risk their lives and often perish trying to cross the border in the desert, in the Rio Grande, or in the ocean, some coming from as far as 900 miles away in sad, sad conditions. There are hundreds annually who die just in the desert from California to Texas, not to mention the people who drown trying to make it from Haiti, whom, as you know, are almost always returned no matter what.

You may recall that _Bush had U.S. ships surrounding Haiti during the _Bush installation of the next puppet, and these ships grabbed EVERYONE fleeing from the massacre going on in Haiti.

There have been Haitians living in Cuban communities for decades. Dominican citizens "flee" to Puerto Rico to find slightly better conditions.

It helps to spend a little time brushing up on migration in the hemisphere, and the rest of the world. It will be hard to accept attitudes deliberately created by right-wing propagandists once you do. Until then, you're their attractive target.

[sandnsea]

27. That's funny

Maybe if you paid a little more attention to the sports world, you'd know that people come here to play sports from all over the world, all the time. I've never heard of a Mexican boxer having to defect to box in the U.S. And make tons of money and take it back home if he wants to. Yet you want me to believe Cuban sports figures have to go through a huge defection scam in order to play sports here. It's all a right wing conspiracy plot.

Is Spain in on it too?

"During the year, 9,221 asylum seekers filed applications in Spain, a 16 percent increase from the 7,926 who sought asylum in 2000. The largest groups of asylum seekers came from Colombia (2,500), Nigeria (1,350), Sierra Leone (617), and Cuba (2,374)."

http://www.refugees.org/world/articles/wrs02_europe4.cfm