Thank you Sam. This is absolutely fascinating. Makes me realize how much I
miss Cuba.  K.

On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 4:34 PM, S E ANDERSON <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>
> <https://3c-lxa.mail.com/mail/client/dereferrer?redirectUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fcenterforneweconomics.us5.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3D69d509d113032e3126c4543ce%26id%3D9455ccf1ad%26e%3D4bdb4ea934>
>
> At the end of October 2014, thirteen delegates from the Schumacher Center
> for a New Economics traveled to Cuba to study its progress in developing
> sustainable food systems.
>
> We visited family farms in the Pinar del Rio Province, a large cooperative
> farm in the Alamar district on the outskirts of Havana, and the gardens of
> an ecological village in the Sierra del Rosario mountains, receiving a warm
> welcome everywhere we went. We met with agricultural agencies and their
> research counterparts. We even received an unexpected request for a meeting
> with the Foreign Ministry. We ate well; listened to exceptional music in
> the troubadour tradition; danced late into the night; and were amazed by
> the range and sophistication of Cuban contemporary art. We fell in love
> with the landscape of the countryside and the architecture of Havana. All
> of which gave us a chance to witness an economy and culture in transition.
>
> Greg Watson, then the Massachusetts Commissioner of Agriculture and now
> Director of Policy and Systems Design for the Schumacher Center, was part
> of the delegation.  Below are excerpts from his report on lessons learned
> from the trip and his suggestions for the Schumacher Center's continued
> exchange with the people of Cuba:
>
>
> I was impressed with what I saw of the Cuban agricultural system:
> beautiful, healthy fruits and vegetables being grown on urban, suburban,
> and rural farms without petroleum inputs.
>
>
>
> The fact that Cuba’s decades-long validation of farming without petroleum
> inputs was not initially driven by environmental concerns in no way
> diminishes its role as a world leader in ecological or organic and urban
> agriculture.  What that country has been able to achieve transcends
> politics and ideology.
>
> Much of this can be attributed to the adoption of decentralized agrarian
> policies that encouraged individual and cooperative forms of production
> beginning in the 1990s. Overly bureaucratic state-run farms were replaced
> with thousands of new small urban and suburban organoponicos, parcelas, and
> patio gardens, and millions of acres of unused state lands were made
> available to workers for small-scale farming.
>
>
>
> Equally impressive and more surprising were the candid conversations
> regarding the changes taking place in the country. People spoke openly of
> the economic failures of socialism while also reminding us of the ethical
> shortcomings of capitalism. Cuban intellectuals, government officials, and
> activists are searching for a new economic model somewhere between these
> two poles, which is certainly an over-simplification of an incredibly
> complex challenge. The agricultural cooperatives may offer a glimpse of
> such a model.
>
>
>
> Forty-five days after we concluded our visit to Cuba, the media was abuzz
> with the news that the United States and Cuba had agreed to re-establish
> diplomatic relations.  This new relationship will unfold while Cuba is in
> the process of reinventing its economic system.
>
>
>
> Our original goal was to share experiences in our respective efforts to
> develop sustainable food systems.  The prospect that the economic embargo
> on Cuba might be lifted, though a bold and positive step in many ways,
> could place the country under pressure to revert to an industrial
> agriculture to meet new export markets.  What role might we play in
> supporting achievements already in place?
>
>
>
> Cuban farmers, researchers, and government officials have over the years
> developed what is arguably the most comprehensive, time-tested system of
> agroecology in the world. They have also refined the Farmer-to-Farmer
> method of communicating information. Troves of technical reports have been
> amassed. U.S. farmers in search of tools that can help enhance their
> efforts to build economically viable sustainable farm businesses could
> benefit from the Cuban experience. In exchange, U.S. farmers could share
> tips on marketing and distribution that could be helpful to Cuban farmers
> and cooperatives.
>
> Sharing the lease agreements of the community land trust, as one tool in a
> new economics tool kit, could provide a method of achieving more ownership
> opportunities in buildings and crop production for Cuba's farmers without
> taking the land itself out of the commons.
>
>
>
> Cooperatives are key to the survival of the Cuba’s agroecology system
> within a new economic environment that will unfold rapidly. The cooperative
> models have demonstrated that Cuba can integrate some aspects of private
> enterprise into their society without compromising fundamental social
> values – in essence an ethical economics based on the premise that people
> and the environment matter more than profit.        The full text of Greg
> Watson's report can be read here
> <https://3c-lxa.mail.com/mail/client/dereferrer?redirectUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fcenterforneweconomics.us5.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3D69d509d113032e3126c4543ce%26id%3D6b32a273ad%26e%3D4bdb4ea934>.
> He will continue to connect the sustainable agriculture community in the
> U.S. with its counterparts in Cuba to share experiences and strengthen each
> other's work.  Our thanks to the Christopher Reynolds Foundation
> <https://3c-lxa.mail.com/mail/client/dereferrer?redirectUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fcenterforneweconomics.us5.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3D69d509d113032e3126c4543ce%26id%3D13c8607e7f%26e%3D4bdb4ea934>
> for its decades of work in Cuba that established the groundwork for this
> project.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> *Staff of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics*
> <https://3c-lxa.mail.com/mail/client/dereferrer?redirectUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fcenterforneweconomics.us5.list-manage.com%2Ftrack%2Fclick%3Fu%3D69d509d113032e3126c4543ce%26id%3Dd653c07d46%26e%3D4bdb4ea934>
>
>