Postcard from Havana

To see the impact of politics on food production and the variety of foods available in a country, look no further than Cuba, says FMCA Committee member John Baker, who recently returned from the country.

A combination of US sanctions, Russian withdrawal of financial support and misguided socialist ideals has resulted in a dramatic drop in basic inputs,like fertilisers,irrigation and pest control.

As a result there has been an equally dramatic drop in agricultural production.Sugar production is down from 8.1 million tonnes in 1987 to 1.4 million tonnes last year; cattle numbers are down from 5 million in 1969 to 1 million today.Rice,a staple food and once widely grown in Cuba,is now being imported.

Fruit and vegetable production is also down significantly, and insufficient to meet the needs of the 12 million people. For example, Cuba previously had an excellent reputation for products such as citrus, which were also exported in significant volumes to Europe. Most grapefruit and orange orchards are now in decline, and lower production means than most Cubans do not have access to these products.

The only fruits regularly seen (and then only in tourist hotels, but not publicly) were grapefruit, oranges and occasionally bananas.

An interview with a doctor specialising in human nutrition (who happened to be helping her family sell linen to tourists to make ends meet), starkly reinforced the fact that fresh fruits and vegetables were becoming less available.

In addition,she said the twin problems of undernourishment and obesity (from the prepondence of fried foods, because fat was a cheaper source of sustenance) were becoming more widespread, especially in young children.

Cuba was also well known for its coffee production, founded in 1791, when French farmers in Haiti rapidly evacuated to Cuba after the revolution in France stimulated a successful revolt among Haitian slaves.Now the viability of the coffee industry is reliant on tourism,and coffee-making skills have certainly been lost.

Excellent soils, topography, climate (apart from hurricanes) and an educated population are not enough to balance the lack of basic inputs,which the country cannot afford the downward spiral shows no signs of stopping.

In fact, visiting Cuba was like being in a living museum, in decline and decay. Cuba excels in rum production, mojitos, music, dancing and keeping 150,000 vintage cars on the road,but not much else. In summary, agriculture is a basket case, when it could be a food bowl for Central America.