In downtown Havana, gardening space is in plots located 23 kilometers away
Posted on 07/05/2020 7:46:26 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
HAVANA (Reuters) - In the courtyard of a temple belonging to the Abakua Afro-Cuban religious brotherhood in Havana, Nelson Piloto is pulling up the lawn to plant bell peppers and cassava in the face of Cuba’s looming food crisis.
Piloto, 40, says he is responding to the Communist government’s call for citizens to produce more of their own food, including in big cities, in whatever spaces they can find, from backyards to balconies.
Standing across from two giant ceiba trees that are considered sacred by many in Cuba, the temple usually resounds with ceremonies involving drumming, animal sacrifices and dance. But it sits empty now due to coronavirus lockdown restrictions on gatherings.
“I’m making the most of the earth,” said Piloto, leaning on his hoe.
Food security has lately risen to the top of the national agenda in Cuba, with countless news headlines and televised roundtable discussions dedicated to the topic.
“Cuba can and must develop its program of municipal self-sustainability definitively and with urgency, in the face of the obsessive and tightened U.S. blockade and the food crisis COVID-19 will leave,” José Ramón Machado Ventura, 89, deputy leader of the Cuban Communist Party, was quoted as saying by state-run media on Monday.
The Caribbean island imports roughly two-thirds of the food it consumes at a cost of around $2 billion annually, in addition to key farming supplies like fertilizer, machinery and animal feed.
But imports have nosedived in recent years as aid from ally Venezuela shrank following its economic implosion and U.S. President Donald Trump tightened the half century-old U.S. trade embargo.
That led first to shortages of imported food and then to drops in national agricultural production. Output of Cuban staples like rice, tomatoes and pork fell 18%, 13% and 8% respectively last year, according to data released
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
We’ll send some of the CHOP farmers there.
Cuba can trade with the rest of the world, but go ahead and blame “EVIL” Trump.
Bloomberg can help.
If this was happening in the US the Congress would be trying to pay people to stop farming in order to further shore up prices.
RE: If this was happening in the US the Congress would be trying to pay people to stop farming in order to further shore up prices.
Didn’t we try this in the 1930”s?
So much for that whole "Religion is the opiate of the Masses, thing."
We’ve blockaded Cuber? I thought Obammy opened Cuber up.
And ever since.
Even if President Dr. Trump did tighten the trade embargo, why didn’t other South American countries and Canadia and Russia pick up the slack?
Prepper ping
That old saying shows the perfidy of the Left.
If anything social theory and Marxism are spectacular opiates for the masses. Entitlement, feelings of victimization and the lots with none of that repentance or loving your neighbor guff getting in the way of them having their jollies.
US entities are not supposed to trade with Cuba. That doesn’t stop the rest of the world.
Cuba’s problem is that their economic system, Communism, does not work, and they are not willing to adopt any free market measures.
This story was written by evil, filthy rich capitalist pigs! Cuba is thriving economic paradise. Our people are very happy living in the favelas! Come, enjoy our success story today!
LOL! Yup. Utopia looking for a few good farmers eh?
There ya go, Comrade.
See? A little rugged individualism and self-reliance never hurt anyone.
...and an acquaintance of mine, who is a die-hard Communist will utterly reject the idea that this is a failure of Communism, but will instead just double-down, and use this as further “proof” that bona-fide Communism (which is the most perfect sociopolitical system ever conceived by humanity, at least according to him), has never actually been achieved or properly implemented anywhere.
And yes, like all good, dyed-in-the-wool SJWs, he is ALWAYS right. X.x
I note what Lenin said about Islam....
Muslims of Russia…all you whose mosques and prayer houses have been destroyed, whose beliefs and customs have been trampled upon by the tsars and oppressors of Russia: your beliefs and practices, your national and cultural institutions are forever free and inviolate. Know that your rights, like those of all the peoples of Russia, are under the mighty protection of the revolution.
In downtown Havana, gardening space is in plots located 23 kilometers away
Nothing that a big, beautiful Trump Casino in downtown Havana can't do.
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