Celebrate Real Independence, Cuban-Style: Grow Your Own Food

Here in the American technotopia, "Green Revolution" usually refers to the great advances in irrigation, chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and genetic engineering that have increased crop yields and provided enough food to sustain populations Malthus and other pessimists would have thought impossible.

But what if we didn't have all the oil and other high-energy inputs of modern industrial agriculture? We'd be Cuba, where "Green Revolution" means local self-sufficiency, growing food in urban organic community gardens:



Cuba had to adopt this agriculture model out of necessity: the Soviet Union collapsed, oil and foreign cash dried up, and Cubans needed to eat. Now small-scale ag is producing 60% of Cuba's food and 70% of the island's vegetables and herbs. Let's hope we Americanos don't have to wait for the oil to run out to realize the value of local ag and the 100-mile diet.

Happy Fourth of July! Now pass the salad....

¿Vacaciones en Cuba? ¡Sí!

Argus Leader online poll, results as of ~7:40 CDT, 2009.04.14

That Sioux Falls paper runs a reader poll on its homepage this morning: "Would you consider taking a vacation in Cuba?" The results as of breakfast time surprise me: 7 out of 10 mostly Midwesterners, just emerging from a hard snowy winter, say they wouldn't even consider vacationing in a warm, sunny island just 90 miles from Florida.

Call me weird, but if I had more vacation money (we might be able to afford a drive to Winnipeg for our exotic foreign travel this year), and if President Obama would open that door a crack further, I'd sign up New Year's in Cuba in an instant. Beaches, bicycling, music, history... what a destination!

And who's afraid of big bad Communists? My first overseas trip was to the Soviet Union in March, 1991. Fascinating, amazingly educational experience. And ten months later—poof! Communism collapses!

I'm ready to do my part again to bring down the Iron Curtain, Mr. President. Keep easing those travel restrictions, and send me to Havana! ¡Quiero bailar in Cuba!