Posted on 10/10/2008 5:35:17 PM PDT by Brilliant
Cuba is limiting how much basic fruits and vegetables people can buy at farmers' markets, irritating some customers but ensuring there's enough — barely — to go around...
The government is delivering all items distributed each month on the universal ration that provides Cubans with up to two weeks of food — including eggs, beans, rice and potatoes...
But the rest of the food Cubans supplement their diets with at supply-and-demand farmers markets and government produce stands has dwindled, prompting the government to limit consumer purchases and cap prices on items including rice, beans, root crops and fresh greens.
Rodriguez has sought to dispel speculation about a replay of the desperate early 1990s, when shelves were bare and people survived for weeks on one small meal daily. Cubans who lived through deprivation after the Soviet Union's collapse say the current food situation doesn't come close...
...an extended credit crisis could stunt the island's foreign currency income if Cubans living abroad lose jobs and stop sending family remittances...
But now, Cuba's top challenge is to increase local production of fruits and vegetables sold at the farmers' markets...
But quantities were much smaller than usual. Vendor Nadia Gomez, who received nothing that day, said police checkpoints leading into Havana now turn away trucks unauthorized to market produce in the capital or have been ordered send their goods to harder-hit areas.
Cuban agricultural officials expect six months of food shortages, and are increasing short-cycle crops such as salad greens and taking other measures to ensure everyone gets enough to eat.
At Cuatro Caminos farmers market, among Havana's largest and most varied, vendor Juan Carlos Martinez lamented he had only papayas, guavas and pineapples to sell. "This isn't the business it used to be," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
At least they still have all the free healthcare they need.
Possibly the shortage was caused by Michael Moore's caterer when he did his latest film.
A bit of insight into a collectivist economy; it’s a benchmark for socialist/communist societies, and should serve as a warning to Americans with respect to what they may anticiate under an Obama government. Alas, the Saint Barack hagiographers will pay no heed, and we in this country may some day come to regard the Cubans with envy.
Aw, yes, the workers paradise revisited. Haven’t heard from ol’ Fidel lately, is he enjoying the wonders of hell yet? ;-)
Ah, they’ve opted for the Obama plan!
So everyone will go hungry but only a few will starve? Hooray! Proof positive that the socialist model is the best!
Vote Hussein!
Cubans lived better when Cuba was a prosperous tourist destination.
Of course, the worker's paradise could always go green...
Didn’t BHO tell us last summer we might have to sacrifice by not eating as much as we would like or heating our homes to the extent we would like. Sounds a little like the Cuban plan.
If it gets to a point where Americans have to limit our expectations or end up paying much higher taxes to fund anti global warming initiatives or other nonsense like that, we’ll see how all those dolts who want “change” will defend their votes for 0bama then.
Send this picture to Cuba! It will solve the crisis! Everyone will loose their appetite, it sure worked for me, it fact I may not eat for days.
Cuba has rich volcanic soil, ample rainfall, and a mild tropical climate. I wonder why they can’t grow enough food to feed themselves? I wonder?
Silence! Or you lose food ration card one year!
An edict from Hussein's Missouri Truth Squad?
The oppressed people who can’t feed together can always read together.
48 years later and the Generalissimo is still screwing the place up.
Sounds like our country after a year or so of Obama.
And it was a food exporting nation until about 1960.
I wonder why they can’t grow enough food to feed themselves? I wonder?
It is a guaranteed side effect of a socialist, centrally planned government. The kind that Bill Ayers and Barack Obama think is a good idea.
This is the future of the US under Obama.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.