Agroecology and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty ... - Yale University

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agroecology and the struggle for food sovereignty
resilience to drought. Von der Weid explained that the agroecology network also
works to promote public policy changes that support local agroecological solutions.
This is vital, because, he asserted, “the struggle goes far beyond the technical choices.”
Cuba’s Self-Sufficient Urban Farmer
Cuba’s history and success with urban agriculture demonstrates that technology is
not the silver bullet for food security. Catherine Murphy, associate researcher at
FLACSO in Havana, explained that establishing food self-sufficiency, or food
sovereignty, was vital to Havana's food supply. Despite eradicating hunger and
malnutrition, Cuba remained dependent on the Soviet Union for food and
agricultural input imports. Following the loss of this support, the entire country, and
Havana in particular, experienced dramatic food shortages. Havana's residents
responded by spontaneously planting gardens and began a movement that led to over
30,000 residents growing their own food. Murphy stressed that Cuba – 80 percent
urbanized – serves as a how-to model for an increasingly urbanizing world.
In 1989 when the movement began, Havana residents did not have the knowledge
to feed themselves through agro-diverse means. The government established an
urban agriculture department to meet the needs of Havana’s growing urban gardens.
The department specifically provided: 1) usufruct rights to areas already in
production; 2) agricultural support including a network of extension workers in each
community, farmer supply shops, municipal compost sites, urban agricultural
training centers, nurseries, and biological control centers; and 3) marketing laws that
allowed farmers to sell their products on-site and pay no taxes.
Murphy asserted that Havana’s urban agriculture demonstrates that “it is possible
to achieve urban food sovereignty and jobs that honor producers and consumers.”
She explained that replication of these achievements would require political will,
organization, and institutional support for grassroots efforts and farmers’ needs.
commentary
New Farmers and New Alliances
Angela Steward, a doctoral candidate at the City University of New York, noted that
the panelists’ discussion of new farmers indicates that our conception of farmers is
changing in this stage of late capitalism. She explained that today’s farmers have a lot
of terrain to negotiate. In facing the challenges of the global market, the panelists
demonstrated that it is important to have good internal community organization –
but this is not enough. Farmers also need to organize with other communities, as
RECA did with the Catholic Church and unions in Brazil.
Farming, Steward asserted, is not just about producing food. It is a social process
by which new visions of democracy and new ways of engaging in politics emerge. The
panelists showed different methods for negotiating with new challenges, Steward
concluded. They demonstrated specific ways, in the words of Jose Montenegro, of
“not just having livelihoods, but lives, [of being] citizens. That will continue to be the
strength of the new farmers’ movement.”
yale school of forestry & environmental studies