Unlikely lessons from Cuba about food security

Cuba is an unlikely place from which we should draw encouragement when considering food security.

Bill Mollison (left)
and David Holmgren

The lessons learned in Cuba late last century should be heeded as the industrialized food system of the developed Western World begins to unravel.

The unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union in the mid-1990s left Cuba without access to oil and as America maintained trade sanctions, found it quite difficult, if not impossible to maintain the country’s food supply.

Aware that Australia’s Bill Mollison and David Holmgren had developed in the 1970s the ecological sound system of growing food known as “permaculture”, the Cubans quickly imported the idea.

Permaculture is: "A philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single project system.”

With their industrialized farming system in disarray, the Cubans embraced permaculture and within a relative short time much of the country’s vegetables were coming from the backyards, driveways, rooftops and any other space, no matter how small, that could be used for growing vegetables.

Permaculture and community gardens appear to fit together near perfectly and a recent story in US online magazine “Nation of Change” tells about the society building strength of community gardens.

Occupy Community Gardens tells about how gardeners exchange ideas and harvest their work and, along with that, help feed their families.