Product Description
This is a story of resistance against all odds, of Cuba's remarkable recovery from a food crisis brought on by the collapse of trade relations with the former socialist bloc and the tightening of the U.S. embargo. Unable to import either food or the farm chemicals and machines needed to grow it via conventional agriculture, Cuba turned inward toward self-reliance. Sustainable agriculture, organic farming, urban gardens, smaller farms, animal traction and biological pest control are part of the successful paradigm shift underway in the Cuban countryside. In this book Cuban authors offer details-for the first time in English-of these remarkable achievements, which may serve as guideposts toward healthier, more environmentally friendly and self-reliant farming in countries both North and South.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 2 reviews)

An amazing story that inpsires hope for the world

5 Stars
April 21, 2004
As a practitioner of sustainable agriculture and organic farming (I am a farmer, teacher and researcher) I found this story of how Cuba used organic farming to beat all odds and overcome a food crisis to be awe inspiring. Every professor, teacher, researcher, analyst, student, thinking farmer and advocate of sustainable agriculture MUST read this book. It will restore your hope. So should everyone interested in Cuba, Latin America, and Third World development. I loved to read it in the cuban's own, well-translated words.

You can skip this one by Byron E. Butchart (Charlottesville, VA, United States)

2 Stars
December 20, 2002
Cuba has done an amazing job of switching over to organic, local food production. They did so to survive the assinine embargo of thier island, but in doing so they have shown the way for all of us to move to a sane mode of food production. You would want this book to be a delightful description of that process. You would be wrong. It is a leaden, tedious exercise in socialist writing with all the wit and charm of a phone book. Skip the book and just go to Cuba and see the results for yourself. Then come home and plant a garden.

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