- 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST The skyline of Havana, Cuba, showing both new construction and the old crumbling infrastructure of the nation's capital city. - 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST A typical Monday morning commute by workers in downtown Havana. - 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST Vermilion County farmer Kevin Green, market study tour participant, in an early 1950's vintage Chevy convertible with a local resident in Havana. - 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST Estrella Madrigal Valdes, president of Cuba’s chamber of commerce, addresses Cuba’s economic growth objectives and trade concerns with Illinois Farm Bureau market study tour participants. “We don’t attach any political strings to establishing normal relations between our two countries,” she said. “When it comes to trade, we only look at competitive edge.” - 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST A typical farmers' market in Havana. (Photo by Josh Flint of Prairie Farmer) - 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST IFB director Steve Hossleton inspects cartons of eggs at a local food ration store. Cuban citizens must use ration stamps to purchase food staples like meat and eggs, according to FarmWeekNow's Martin Ross. - 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST During a visit to an urban ag cooperative, tour participants listen to Ramon Garcia Hernandez, president of the Orlando Lopez Cooperative (center) and Wilfred Peres Hernandez (right), an ag educator at the co-op.
- 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST Migual Angel Salcines Lopez, president of the Alamar Cooperative, also involved in urban agriculture, talks with members of the IFB Market Study tour. - 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST Grover Webb (right) looks on as a local professor explains sustainable farming techniques used in Cuban agriculture today. - 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST Market Study participants tour the IMSA flour mill in the port of Havana. Cuba imports roughly 80% of its food these days. - 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST Many Cubans have melded a revolutionary spirit with a will toward innovation and adaptation brought about by their island’s limited resources and modest incomes. Here, a collage of Che Guevara, a hero of the Cuban revolution, adorns the home/headquarters of Jose Lama and Vilda Figueroa (standing at right), a couple who’ve pioneered in educating low-income consumers and have even hosted popular TV/radio programs about food preservation and safety. That’s crucial given potential produce waste and the ongoing threat of hurricanes in Cuba. - 2012 Cuba MST
2012 Cuba MST Malecon -- Havana’s walled sea front -- provides a scenic vista of Havana Bay and its historic site. Crumbling homes and buildings along the Malecon currently are under repair and reconstruction in an effort to rehabilitate the heavily tourist-traveled area.
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Cuba: Too long an island unto itself?
Eighteen farmers flew to Havana, Cuba, last week as part of Illinois Farm Bureau's Cuba Market Study. FarmWeekNow's Martin Ross accompanied the group and provided the photos and audio for this story.
Martin Ross
Published: Jul 6, 2012
They call it “The Crisis” -- the historic moment when walls and ideologies fell across Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and when Cuba, politically isolated from its powerful neighbor, the U.S., was forced to sink or swim.
Over the roughly 20 years since Soviet supplies and support stopped flowing onto the island, Cuba has managed to keep its head above water through partial “reallocation” of state-run lands, a push to regain its pre-1960 tourist base, and herculean efforts to feed its millions through imports and “urban agriculture”.
During Illinois Farm Bureau’s Cuba market study tour, Illinois farmers met with officials, business leaders, and co-ops working to meet the socialist nation’s food needs. While the U.S. has been allowed to sell ag goods to Cuba for nearly a dozen years, it is under strict cash sale requirements and a one-way, U.S.-to-Cuba trade policy.
IFB National Policy Director Adam Nielsen noted hopes that study tour participants can address the value of U.S.-Cuba relations in Washington and recruit congressional “champions” to fight decades-old Cuban trade and travel sanctions.
“This trip will refocus and re-energize us for this goal,” Nielsen assured Cuban officials.
Cuba today imports about 80 percent of its food supply, but Cuban ag ministry international relations specialist Juan Jose Leon reports “we’re working very hard in (domestic food) import substitution.”
“And as you are aware, we import a lot from the U.S.,” he stressed.
Leon nonetheless blasted what he deemed the 50-year-plus U.S. “blockade” of Cuban goods, arguing U.S. purchase of “good Cuban cigars” and other products would help President Raul Castro fund added food purchases.
Plus, he noted “very poor” Cuban corn yields, a lagging dairy-cattle herd formerly fed with plentiful Soviet grain, and heavy fruit and vegetable losses due to “our inability to process (produce).”
Editor's note: We have audio comments from three of the tour participants on their observations about Cuba. You will hear first from former IDOA director Tom Jennings, followed by Jamie Walter and Keith Mussman.
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