Should We Try to be Like Cuba?

Posted by Baylen on Jun. 10, 2008

che.jpgThat’s the question Slashfood is asking, citing a Philly Inquirer article that, hyperventilating, calls the backward island nation’s urban farming program “a stunning success.” Via Slashfood:

Yesterday, the Philadelphia Inquirer had an article praising Cuba’s urban farming program for being able to supply much of Cuba’s vegetables. It also provides 350,000 jobs with considerably high pay. Futhermore, it has increased food options for a country that was heavily dependent on a diet of rice and beans and canned goods from Eastern Europe. With a population that is 80 perecent urban, it would only make sense for them to develop an urban agricultural agenda.

Since the majority of people in the United States live in urban areas, it seems like this model might help relieve the current food shortages. Can cities like New York City adapt the Cuban program?

Heavens to Mao no! No, no no!

As an urban farmer in America–I think my 625 sq. ft. or so plot qualifies me, over my dead body will or should any “program” force us to de-industrialize and become a nation of urban farmers. Small businesspeople, of which farmers are a subset, indeed form part of the backbone of our economy. But so too do the researchers, investment bankers, universities, professional sports teams, and corporations.

Every society strives to emerge from subsistence farming. The principal struggle of man over the millennia has been to move from the forest to the farm to the cities–and not so we can farm some more.

Take Ireland, once a nation of potato farmers. When blight struck, millions died tragically in an horrendous famine. People couldn’t wait to leave. Many emigrated.

It wasn’t until Ireland started to become a technologically advanced society that people wanted to live there–and showed it by immigrating to the country.

We don’t want to mimick Cuba in this or any other of its backward policies. No country does. No country should.

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  • I agree that Cuba is a model for indentured farming, not progressive farming. But that does not negate the case for commercial urban farming in developed countries. It is already happening in the U.S. and Canada. As the co-author of SPIN-Farming, what I see every day are more and more entrepreneurs using SPIN’s franchise-ready farming system as an entry point into the farming profession. They are using front lawns and backyards and neighborhood lots as their land base. Perhaps most importantly, this is happening without significant policy changes or government supports. This is not subsistence farming. This is recasting farming as a small business in cities and towns and integrating it into the built environment in an economically viable manner. It is "right sizing" agriculture for an urbanized century and making local food production a viable business proposition once again.
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