http://www.twnside.org.sg/title/twr118h.ht... This was exacerbated by the implementation in 1992 of the US’ punitive ‘Cuba Democracy Act’, which tightened its existing trade embargo, and further in 1996 with the signing of the satirically-titled ‘Cuba Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act’ (the ‘Helms-Burton Act’). On top of an embargo that prevents the sale by any American or American-friendly industries of food or medicine to Cuba, upon pain of sanctions or legal action, the Helms-Burton Act is a deliberate attempt to stifle the re-growth of the Cuban economy by deterring foreign investment. US Senator Jesse Helms, one of the creators of the Act, is remarkably honest about its overall aim - the replacement of Castro’s government by one more favoured by the US. ‘Let this be the year Cubans say farewell to Fidel,’ he said as the Act was passed in the Senate. ‘I don’t care whether Fidel leaves vertically or horizontally, but he’s leaving.’
For a less resourceful and determined nation than Cuba, such action by the world’s only superpower could have spelled disaster. But rather than roll over and die, Cuba began to foment a new revolution. The nation responded to the crisis with a restructuring of agriculture. It began a transformation from conventional, high-input, mono-crop intensive agriculture, to smaller organic and semi-organic farms.
As oil imports crashed, Cubans looked for ways to reduce their dependency on it. In agriculture, this meant reducing transportation, refrigeration and storage costs by relocating agricultural production closer to the cities. Havana has some 20% of Cuba’s population, and at 2.5 million people is the largest city in the Caribbean. Feeding its population was obviously a priority. Urban agriculture was one of the solutions.
Urban agriculture played an important role in feeding urban populations around the world up until the industrial revolution of the 18th century, when nearly all food began to be imported from the countryside.6 Fertile areas inside and surrounding cities were lost to development. But since the 1970s, there has been evidence of a global reversal of this trend. It is estimated that some 14% of the world’s food is now produced in urban areas.7
