Suchergebnisse

While it is obvious that the dominant political-corporate power & vested interests are the largest obstacles to overcoming major problems with the current agribusiness system, the psychological barrier to believing that other systems could work is also a block to change. Cuba has faced a food crisis & through the use of sustainable farming methods has overcome it. It has demonstrated that self-reliance, small farms, & agroecological technology can produce the amount of food the nation needed. After the 1959 revolution, Cuba had a favorable trading status with the Soviet bloc. While three times the amount of land was devoted to sugar production for export, Cuba imported about 57% of its food. With the fall of the USSR & the loss of a favorable trading situation, Cuba faced a food crisis. Substitutes for pesticides, such as biopesticides, natural enemies, resistant plant varieties, crop rotations, & cover cropping to suppress weeds, were adopted. Biofertilizers, earthworms, compost, & organic fertilizers, natural phosphate, & animal & green manures were used for synthetic fertilizers. Animals replaced the tractor. Since small farms adapted to these changes better than the state sector, it was reorganized into small-scale management units that relinked people with the land. Urban gardens were encouraged. By mid-1995 the food shortage had been eliminated & by the following year, Cuba had achieved its highest production for ten of the thirteen basic food items needed. L. A. Hoffman