The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

[Jamt]

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call "The Special Period." The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope. 52 minutes video: http://current.com/items/89990938_the-power-of-community-how-cuba-survived-peak-oil.htm

[Lenny]

I read an essay dealing with this a few months ago. It's astonishing how well they managed the shock of the overnight evaporation of their ability to grow their food.

Post-1960 Cuba is something I can't help but have sympathy for in many ways.


The Great Irony : the cars on the road there are all from the 1950s, but their system of agriculture nowadays may very well be more like a vision of the 2050s for the rest of us, if Peak Oil "pans out" as they say it will.

[The Ripper]

Seems like a very interesting documentary. I will be sure to watch it.

[The Lawspeaker]

I am watching it right now and I must say that it's very, very interesting (and promising).
We could learn a trick or two from those people when it comes to decentralizing the economy as well as reconnecting the food chain back to Mother Nature. :thumb001:

[Austin]

yalls pro environment stance hurts you as nationalists I think.... its all a sham by the very people that hate nationalists and or pro-western individuals...

if they have you guys using cuba as an example for anything then i think we are in trouble and they are succeeding in their suckering tactics.

[RoyBatty]

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens.

Nowadays I don't know what to make / not to make of "Peak Oil" theories however, this documentary looks fascinating. This "less efficient and industrialised" decentralised agricultural system is in my opinion the ideal.

Having the ability to be at least partially self-reliant and self-sufficient with regards to food production (and everything else for that matter) is empowering. It's one less hold the Corporations and State have over us.

We can learn a lot from this and ask ourselves whether we aren't being fed empty promises and fairytales about our supposed "freedoms"......

There is a very interesting parallel (but opposite) development taking place in the US at the moment. The State and The Corporations are pushing through legislation to limit the public's ability to produce food. This is done under the guise of "food safety" and "public health". Yes I know people will point out that it only applies to food sellers but even so..... to me it's a somewhat worrying development.

They who control the food supply control YOU.


Control the oil you control the country. Control the food you control the people. ~Henry Kissinger


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http://shepardpolitics.blogspot.com/2009/03/hr-875-would-essentially-outlaw-family.html

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/03/libertarian-farmers-push-back-against-s510/

http://www.oprah.com/health/Health-and-Environmental-Consequences-of-Food-Subsidies-Daphne-Oz/

[RoyBatty]

bumpov, good topic

[Lenny]

Having the ability to be at least partially self-reliant and self-sufficient with regards to food production (and everything else for that matter) is empowering. It's one less hold the Corporations and State have over us.
Flash backwards only 75 years or so, and a majority of Americans were either actively engaged in farming themselves or had close relatives engaged in farming.

Today, not more than 5% of Americans are farming or closely know anyone who farms. (Gardens don't count). There is also a fading memory of any attachment to farms among those born and raised in the "metro areas". Most farms are now corporate, and the less said about the modern-American process of raising livestock for meat, the better.

The decline of the fortunes of European Mankind in the USA (and elsewhere) and the ascent of the Federal-Corporate Leviathan. These twinned concepts seem to have an inverse relationship with the rate at which people are farming. That is to say: As one goes up, the other goes down. The more people detached from the farm, the less freedom we all have had. The more people farming or closely connected to it through relatives, the less power for the Federal-Corporate Leviathan and its "Capitalist-Liberal-Democracy".

The long story short, farming as "empowering" -- I agree.

[Lenny]

Nowadays I don't know what to make / not to make of "Peak Oil" theories
U.S. Military Warns of Oil Shocks by 2012 (http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/16/1583194/us-military-warns-of-serious-oil.html)

the U.S. Joint Forces command recently issued a Joint Operating Environment report warning that surplus oil production capacity could vanish as soon as 2012, leading to serious oil shortages by 2015. Dire consequences, they predict, could follow quickly.

[The Lawspeaker]

yalls pro environment stance hurts you as nationalists I think.... its all a sham by the very people that hate nationalists and or pro-western individuals...
Wrong. Let me explain why you're wrong, if not dead wrong: first of all we are made dependent and subservient to big cooperations like Monsanto and that's why it should be good to make sure that we ween ourselves off those companies by taking back the control over our own food productions. This will also tie us to our own soil - thus it will increase the love for ones soil.

And as an added bonus we will use less oil making us less dependent on the Middle East.



if they have you guys using cuba as an example for anything then i think we are in trouble and they are succeeding in their suckering tactics.
Sometimes you can lessons in the most unlikely of places. It's good learn from a friend.. but even better to learn from the enemy.;)
And there is nothing wrong with the idea of cherry-picking.