By Robin Schidlowski

Living in the Bay Area, I have convenient and easy access to any food I can think of. It is in my nature to think of food seasonally and locally, but it is also easy to forget that not everyone enjoys the luxury of choosing healthy food, like I do. And even though I benefit from our local and organic food economy, I am a consumer, completely dependent on our food system. With peak oil, wayward national politics, and earthquakes in the forecast, it is becoming increasingly clear that our amazing and abundant food system could be threatened just like it was in Havana, Cuba less than two decades ago.

Before 1991 almost no food was produced in the city of Havana, not unlike most modern metropolises. Up to 57% of Cuban caloric intake was derived from imported food. Domestic food was grown outside the capital city on state run farms that used industrial agricultural methods. Almost all food in Havana was channeled through a state operated distribution system and all residents were insured regular commodities, such as rice, beans, sugar, coffee, and poultry or other meat. With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, however, agricultural inputs such as pesticides, fertilizers, and animal feed, were reduced by 80%, and fuel and tires for tractors and other agricultural machinery were cut by 50%, leaving the country without the means for industrial food production. Cuba was facing a food security crisis.

In response, the Cuban government established a series of urban agriculture programs and resolved to create a link between the people and the land, as a means of promoting self-sufficiency. One of the first steps that was taken to help feed a hungry Havana was the implementation of a community orchard program, in which citizen “cultivators” would participate in the reforestation of their concrete city. Initially 5000 community orchards were approved and established in unconventional spaces within the city, including patios, rooftops, balconies, and plots of undeveloped or abandoned land. Where there was no soil, raised beds were planted. In the words of the former head of the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI), Mario Gonzalez Novo, “the program has the simple objective of reversing the silent disaster of the city’s deforestation by operating on the basic premise that no space should remain where a tree can be planted.” A quantitative goal of the program is to plant 18 million fruit and timber trees in Havana.

The MINAGRI was created to support the urban cultivator in increasing crop health and productivity. Not your typical government agency, the MINAGRI researches and disseminates information and resources for sustainable food production, covering topics such as intensive farming and gardening, integrated pest management, composting, seed saving, and food preservation. The department runs seed banks, and supports locally organized gardening clubs, where people share knowledge, tools, and other resources. The decision to allow any unused space to be officially recognized and utilized for the purpose of food cultivation resulted in over 26,000 community garden plots in Havana. Until 1994, however, most of the food produced in these gardens was still out of reach to most citizens.

Then, the Cuban government legalized farmer’s markets. This eliminated the need for a fruit and veggie black market, equating to more equitable distribution, lower prices, and greater access to more food. Now, with a thriving food economy, over 22% of the city's population works in urban agricultural production or research. In 1998, 30,000 people were employed in over 8000 agricultural production collectives in the city of Havana alone.

Outside of the city, the super-sized national farms were also reorganized into cooperative production units. The state, in effect, gave control of its large, industrialized farms, which comprised 80% of Cuba’s agricultural land, to the people. The land is provided to government approved, micro-managed groups of citizens, including families, or “production units” rent free. The producers typically have contracts with the state, which still runs a national distribution program, but they are allowed to sell their excess produce and to keep the profits.

Within five years Cuba had recovered from their crisis. Today, with a bustling small producer agricultural economy, over 30% of Havana's food is being grown in the city. We learn from Cuba's strategy that it IS possible, in an urban center, to ensure an equitable distribution of food by promoting self sufficient production. And Havana is not alone, there are other examples of abundant urban harvests, some right under our noses.

At Village Homes, in Davis, CA, the community is touched by urban agriculture. The planning of fruit and nut trees, irrigation canals, and communal garden plots in the neighborhood design has provided village homes with a year round food harvest. Other benefits are greater economic stability and higher property values. People's Grocery in West Oakland, has established a network of urban micro-farms that nourish a hungry community. The next time I think about a sustainable harvest I will Imagine, instead of the farmer's market, walking outside and picking seasonal fruit year round on Dolores, Hayes, Polk, and Arguello. On Chestnut, Brannan, Webster, and Market.