[GJM] The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

[EcoTort]

  The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil



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25 Feb 2006
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<http://globalpublicmedia.com/topics/climate_change> | Oil 
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By Megan Quinn
 From Permaculture Activist

Havana, Cuba -- At the Organipónico de Alamar, a neighborhood 
agriculture project, a workers' collective runs a large urban farm, a 
produce market and a restaurant. Hand tools and human labor replace 
oil-driven machinery. Worm cultivation and composting create productive 
soil. Drip irrigation conserves water, and the diverse, multi-hued 
produce provides the community with a rainbow of healthy foods.


/Farmers at the Organiponico de Alamar, a neighborhood agriculture 
project in downtown Havana, weed the beds. (Photo by John Morgan)/

In other Havana neighborhoods, lacking enough land for such large 
projects, residents have installed raised garden beds on parking lots 
and planted vegetable gardens on their patios and rooftops.

Since the early 1990s, an urban agriculture movement has swept through 
Cuba, putting this capital city of 2.2 million on a path toward 
sustainability.

A small group of Australians assisted in this grass-roots effort, coming 
to this Caribbean island nation in 1993 to teach permaculture, a system 
based on sustainable agriculture which uses far less energy.

This need to bring agriculture into the city began with the fall of the 
Soviet Union and the loss of more than 50 percent of Cuba's oil imports, 
much of its food and 85 percent of its trade economy. Transportation 
halted, people went hungry and the average Cuban lost 30 pounds.

"In reality, when this all began, it was a necessity. People had to 
start cultivating vegetables wherever they could," a tour guide told a 
documentary crew filming in Cuba in 2004 to record how Cuba survived on 
far less oil than usual.

The crew included the staff of The Community Solution, a non-profit 
organization in Yellow Springs, Ohio which teaches about peak oil -- the 
time when oil production world-wide will reach an all-time high and head 
into an irreversible decline. Some oil analysts believe this may happen 
within this decade, making Cuba a role model to follow.

"We wanted to see if we could capture what it is in the Cuban people and 
the Cuban culture that allowed them to go through this very difficult 
time," said Pat Murphy, The Community Solution's executive director. 
"Cuba has a lot to show the world in how to deal with energy adversity."

Scarce petroleum supplies have not only transformed Cuba's agriculture. 
The nation has also moved toward small-scale renewable energy and 
developed an energy-saving mass transit system, while maintaining its 
government-provided health care system whose preventive, locally-based 
approach to medicine conserves scarce resources.

The era in Cuba following the Soviet collapse is known to Cubans as the 
Special Period. Cuba lost 80 percent of its export market and its 
imports fell by 80 percent. The Gross Domestic Product dropped by more 
than one third.

"Try to image an airplane suddenly losing its engines. It was really a 
crash," Jorge Mario, a Cuban economist, told the documentary crew. A 
crash that put Cuba into a state of shock. There were frequent blackouts 
in its oil-fed electric power grid, up to 16 hours per day. The average 
daily caloric intake in Cuba dropped by a third.

According to a report on Cuba from Oxfam, an international development 
and relief agency, "In the cities, buses stopped running, generators 
stopped producing electricity, factories became silent as graveyards. 
Obtaining enough food for the day became the primary activity for many, 
if not most, Cubans."

In part due to the continuing US embargo, but also because of the loss 
of a foreign market, Cuba couldn't obtain enough imported food. 
Furthermore, without a substitute for fossil-fuel based large-scale 
farming, agricultural production dropped drastically.

So Cubans started to grow local organic produce out of necessity, 
developed bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers as petrochemical 
substitutes, and incorporated more fruits and vegetables into their 
diets. Since they couldn't fuel their aging cars, they walked, biked, 
rode buses, and carpooled.

"There are infinite small solutions," said Roberto Sanchez from the 
Cuban-based Foundation for Nature and Humanity. "Crises or changes or 
problems can trigger many of these things which are basically adaptive. 
We are adapting."

*A New Agricultural Revolution*

Cubans are also replacing petroleum-fed machinery with oxen, and their 
urban agriculture reduces food transportation distances. Today an 
estimated 50 percent of Havana's vegetables come from inside the city, 
while in other Cuban towns and cities urban gardens produce from 80 
percent to more than 100 percent of what they need.

In turning to gardening, individuals and neighborhood organizations took 
the initiative by identifying idle land in the city, cleaning it up, and 
planting.


/Farmers pose with their produce at a farmers' market in downtown 
Havana. The Cuban government now allows these private markets, which 
provide year-round fresh local food to the community. (Photo by John 
Morgan)/

When the Australian permaculturists came to Cuba they set up the first 
permaculture demonstration project with a $26,000 grant from the Cuban 
government.

Out of this grew the Foundation for Nature and Humanity's urban 
permaculture demonstration project and center in Havana. "With this 
demonstration, neighbors began to see the possibilities of what they can 
do on their rooftops and their patios," said Carmen López, director of 
the urban permaculture center, as she stood on the center's rooftop 
amongst grape vines, potted plants, and compost bins made from tires.

Since then the movement has been spreading rapidly across Havana's 
barrios. So far López' urban permaculture center has trained more than 
400 people in the neighborhood in permaculture and distributes a monthly 
publication, "El Permacultor." "Not only has the community learned about 
permaculture," according to López, "we have also learned about the 
community, helping people wherever there is need."

One permaculture student, Nelson Aguila, an engineer-turned-farmer, 
raises food for the neighborhood on his integrated rooftop farm. On just 
a few hundred square feet he has rabbits and hens and many large pots of 
plants. Running free on the floor are gerbils, which eat the waste from 
the rabbits, and become an important protein source themselves. "Things 
are changing," Sanchez said. "It's a local economy. In other places 
people don't know their neighbors. They don't know their names. People 
don't say 'hello' to each other. Not here."

Since going from petrochemical intensive agricultural production to 
organic farming and gardening, Cuba now uses 21 times less pesticide 
than before the Special Period. They have accomplished this with their 
large-scale production of bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers, exporting 
some of it to other Latin American countries.

Though the transition to organic production and animal traction was 
necessary, the Cubans are now seeing the advantages. "One of the good 
parts of the crisis was to go back to the oxen," said Miguel Coyula, a 
community development specialist, "Not only do they save fuel, they do 
not compact the soil the way the tractor does, and the legs of the oxen 
churn the earth."

"The Cuban agricultural, conventional, 'Green Revolution' system never 
was able to feed the people," Sanchez said. "It had high yields, but was 
oriented to plantation agriculture. We exported citrus, tobacco, sugar 
cane and we imported the basic things. So the system, even in the good 
times, never fulfilled people's basic needs."

Drawing on his permaculture knowledge, Sanchez said, "You have to follow 
the natural cycles, so you hire nature to work for you, not work against 
nature. To work against nature, you have to waste huge amounts of energy."

*Energy Solutions*

Because most of Cuba's electricity had been generated from imported oil, 
the shortages affected nearly everyone on the island. Scheduled rolling 
blackouts several days per week lasted for many years. Without 
refrigerators, food would spoil. Without electric fans, the heat was 
almost unbearable in a country that regularly has temperatures in the 
80s and 90s.

The solutions to Cuba's energy problems were not easy. Without money, it 
couldn't invest in nuclear power and new conventional fossil fuel plants 
or even large-scale wind and solar energy systems. Instead, the country 
focused on reducing energy consumption and implementing small-scale 
renewable energy projects.

Ecosol Solar and Cuba Solar are two renewable energy organizations 
leading the way. They help develop markets for renewable energy, sell 
and install systems, perform research, publish newsletters, and do 
energy efficiency studies for large users.

Ecosol Solar has installed 1.2 megawatts of solar photovoltaic in both 
small household systems (200 watt capacity) and large systems (15-50 
kilowatt capacity). In the United States 1.2 megawatts would provide 
electricity to about 1000 homes, but can supply power to significantly 
more houses in Cuba where appliances are few, conservation is the 
custom, and the homes are much smaller.

About 60 percent of Ecosol Solar's installations go to social programs 
to power homes, schools, medicals facilities, and community centers in 
rural Cuba. It recently installed solar photovoltaic panels to electrify 
2,364 primary schools throughout rural Cuba where it was not cost 
effective to take the grid. In addition, it is developing compact model 
solar water heaters that can be assembled in the field, water pumps 
powered by PV panels, and solar dryers.

A visit to "Los Tumbos," a solar-powered community in the rural hills 
southwest of Havana demonstrates the positive impact that these 
strategies can have. Once without electricity, each household now has a 
small solar panel that powers a radio and a lamp. Larger systems provide 
electricity to the school, hospital, and community room, where residents 
gather to watch the evening news program called the "Round Table." 
Besides keeping the residents informed, the television room has the 
added benefit of bringing the community together.

"The sun was enough to maintain life on earth for millions of years," 
said Bruno Beres, a director of Cuba Solar. "Only when we [humans] 
arrived and changed the way we use energy was the sun not enough. So the 
problem is with our society, not with the world of energy."

*Transportation - A System of Ride Sharing*

Cubans also faced the problem of providing transportation on a reduced 
energy diet. Solutions came from ingenious Cubans, who often quote the 
phrase, "Necessity is the mother of invention." With little money or 
fuel, Cuba now moves masses of people during rush hour in Havana. In an 
inventive approach, virtually every form of vehicle, large and small, 
was used to build this mass transit system. Commuters ride in hand-made 
wheelbarrows, buses, other motorized transport and animal-powered vehicles.

One special Havana transit vehicle, nicknamed a "camel," is a very large 
metal semi-trailer, pulled by a standard semi-truck tractor, which holds 
300 passengers. Bicycles and motorized two-passenger rickshaws are also 
prevalent in Havana, while horse drawn carts and large old panel trucks 
are used in the smaller towns.


/This unique Cuban transport vehicle, called a "camel", can carry 300 
passengers. (Photo by John Morgan)/

Government officials in yellow garb pull over nearly empty government 
vehicles and trucks on Havana's streets and fill them with people 
needing a ride. Chevys from the 1950s cruise along with four people in 
front and four more in back.

A donkey cart with a taxi license nailed to the frame also travels 
Cuba's streets. Many trucks were converted to passenger transport by 
welding steps to the back so riders could get on and off with ease.

*Health Care and Education - National Priorities*

Even though Cuba is a poor country, with a per capita Gross Domestic 
Product of only $3,000 per year (putting them in the bottom third of all 
nations), life expectancy is the same as in the U.S., and infant 
mortality is below that in the U.S. The literacy rate in Cuba is 97 
percent, the same as in the U.S. Cuba's education system, as well as its 
medical system is free.

When Cubans suffered through their version of a peak oil crisis, they 
maintained their free medical system, one of the major factors that 
helped them to survive. Cubans repeatedly emphasize how proud they are 
of their system.

Before the Cuban Revolution in 1959, there was one doctor for every 2000 
people. Now there is a doctor for every 167 people. Cuba also has an 
international medical school and trains doctors to work in other poor 
countries. Each year there are 20,000 Cuban doctors abroad doing this 
kind of work.

With meat scarce and fresh local vegetables in abundance since 1995, 
Cubans now eat a healthy, low-fat, nearly vegetarian, diet. They also 
have a healthier outdoor lifestyle and walking and bicycling have become 
much more common. "Before, Cubans didn't eat that many vegetables. Rice 
and beans and pork meat was the basic diet," Sanchez from the Foundation 
for Nature and Humanity said. "At some point necessity taught them, and 
now they demand [vegetables]."

Doctors and nurses live in the community where they work and usually 
above the clinic itself. In remote rural areas, three-story buildings 
are constructed with the doctor's office on the bottom floor and two 
apartments on the second and third floors, one for the doctor and one 
for the nurse.

In the cities, the doctors and nurses always live in the neighborhoods 
they serve. They know the families of their patients and try to treat 
people in their homes. "Medicine is a vocation, not a job," exclaimed a 
Havana doctor, demonstrating the motivation for her work. In Cuba 60 
percent of the doctors are women.

Education is considered the most important social activity in Cuba. 
Before the revolution, there was one teacher for every 3,000 people. 
Today the ratio is one for every 42 people, with a teacher-student ratio 
of 1 to 16. Cuba has a higher percentage of professionals than most 
developing countries, and with 2 percent of the population of Latin 
America, Cuba has 11 percent of all the scientists.

In an effort to halt migration from the countryside to the city during 
the Special Period, higher education was spread out into the provinces, 
expanding learning opportunities and strengthening rural communities. 
Before the Special Period there were only three institutions of higher 
learning in Cuba. Now there are 50 colleges and universities throughout 
the country, seven in Havana.

*The Power of Community*

Throughout its travels, the documentary crew saw and experienced the 
resourcefulness, determination, and optimism of the Cuban people, often 
hearing the phrase "Sí, se puede" or "Yes it can be done."

People spoke of the value of "resistir" or "resistance," showing their 
determination to overcome obstacles. And they have lived under a U.S. 
economic blockade since the early 1960s, viewed as the ultimate test of 
the Cuban ability to resist.

There is much to learn from Cuba's response to the loss of cheap and 
abundant oil. The staff of The Community Solution sees these lessons as 
especially important for people in developing countries, who make up 82 
percent of the world's population and live more on life's edge. But 
developed countries are also vulnerable to shortages in energy. And with 
the coming onset of peak oil, all countries will have to adapt to the 
reality of a lower energy world.

With this new reality, the Cuban government changed its 30-year motto 
from "Socialism or Death" to "A Better World is Possible." Government 
officials allowed private entrepreneurial farmers and neighborhood 
organizations to use public land to grow and sell their produce. They 
pushed decision-making down to the grassroots level and encouraged 
initiatives in their neighborhoods. They created more provinces. They 
encouraged migration back to the farms and rural areas and reorganized 
their provinces to be in-line with agricultural needs.


/(Photo by John Morgan)/

 From The Community Solution's viewpoint, Cuba did what it could to 
survive, despite its ideology of a centralized economy. In the face of 
peak oil and declining oil production, will America do what it takes to 
survive, in spite of its ideology of individualism and consumerism? Will 
Americans come together in community, as Cubans did, in the spirit of 
sacrifice and mutual support?

"There is climate change, the price of oil, the crisis of energy ..." 
Beres from Cuba Solar said, listing off the challenges humanity faces. 
"What we must know is that the world is changing and we must change the 
way we see the world."

/This article appeared in the special Peak Oil issue of Permaculture 
Activist <http://www.permacultureactivist.net>, Spring 2006. The author, 
Megan Quinn, is the outreach director for The Community Solution 
<http://www.communitysolution.org>, a program of Community Service Inc., 
a nonprofit organization in Yellow Springs, Ohio. For information about 
its soon-to-be-released documentary, "The Power of Community: How Cuba 
Survived Peak Oil" visit its website, e-mail her at 
megan at communitysolution.org, or call 937-767-2161.
/


*(ps. it is illegal to pay tax in the uk until something like this 
happens here... see http://www.ecotort.gn.apc.org )*

	

 

 

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