surviving the fallout - university of wisconsin–whitewater american wor… · • the u.s.s.r....
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K. Nelson, [email protected]
Surviving the Fallout: Lessons Learned on Adaptation from Cuba's Fallow Sugar Cane Fields & Rise of Urban Agriculture
Narrative of SustainabilitySustainability Reporting
Greenhouse Gas Inventory ---CARBON
STARS --- 300 point assessment of sustainability “products” in Academics, Operations, and Administration--- Utilized by multiple National Rankings
Value-Added Narrative
Value-Added Narrative- Student Focused
Absence of Process & People Acknowledgment of Process & People
Value-Added Narrative
Resiliency, Adaptation, Resourcefulness…“Jugaard”…to signify creativity to make existing things work or to create new things with meager resources, expressing pride in the inherent ability to innovate in constraints…
Cuban Sugar Cane
Cuban Organopónico
“King Sugar” under Castro• The U.S.S.R. subsidized Cuban sugar cane, trading 4 Tons of Oil for
every ton of Sugar• By 1970, Castro pushed for 10 million tons of sugar per year
• “Most Mechanized Agriculture” sector in all of Latin America by 1980’s
• 30% of Cuba’s Investment ($1 billion went to agriculture machinery)
• Consuming 229% more fertilizer per hectare than the U.S. in 1986
The Fall of “King Sugar”, 1991- “The Special Period” of Cuba- First “post-oil” economy in the developed country• U.S.S.R and the Soviet Bloc Eastern European countries pull out during democratic revolutions
• 80% of Cuba’s trade was lost
• Sugar cane production came to halt, tractors were left in the field
• Food and Medicine rationing
A Country to Feed and a Nation to hang onto…The large sugar cane fields, that could no longer be cultivated, became organic and agriculture moved to an urban model
How?• “The Alternative Model”- restoring lost soil fertility & natural control by redirecting labor and
resources toward “biotechnology”
• Chemical- Organic waste, manure, earthworm humus, and legumes tilled into the soil
• Biological Pest Control
• Management Practices
• Labor Mobilization
• Animal Traction
• Crop Diversity and rotation
• Nutrient goals and consumption
• DECENTRALIZED-Ownership and management rights went back to the people
OrganopónicosUrban Agriculture run by a cooperative, by the people, for the people
Sustainable Environment-Education and
Jobs that Support the Environment
Sustainable Community-Develop and Keep Talent
Sustainable Institution-
Support Research
and Access Mission
Sustainable Student-
Healthy Diet & Low Debt
Nested Model of Sustainability
Vincent High School
Farmland Protection
Farm Mentorship H.S. Student Cooperative Farm
Timeshare to Tuition
Local Food to Campus
Students as Actors of their own future
Questions?
ReferencesAbbott, E. (2011). Sugar: A Bittersweet History. London: Duckworth Publishers.
American Sugar Refining Company. (1922). Island of Cuba Showing Location of Raw Sugar Centrals [map]. (neither scale nor publisher indicated).
Gropas, M. (2006). Landscape, revolution and property regimes in rural Havana. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 33(2), 248-277.
Henken, T. (2008). Cuba: A Global Studies Handbook. California: ABC-CLIO.
Mintz, S. W. (1985). Sweetness and power. New York: Viking.
Febles-González, J. M., Tolón-Becerra, A., Lastra-Bravo, X., & Acosta-Valdés, X. (2011). Cuban agricultural policy in the last 25 years. From conventional to organic agriculture. Land Use Policy, 28(4), 723-735.
Maal-Bared, R. (2005). Comparing environmental issues in Cuba before and after the Special Period: Balancing sustainable development and survival. Environment international, 32(3), 349-358.
Ortiz, F. (1995). Cuban counterpoint, tobacco and sugar. Duke University Press.
Rosset, P., & Benjamin, M. (1994). The Greening of the Revolution: Cuba's experiment with organic agriculture. Australia: Ocean Press.
Suárez, J. A., Beatón, P. A., Escalona, R. F., & Montero, O. P. (2012). Energy, environment and development in Cuba. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 16(5), 2724-2731.