Cuban Agriculture: A Green and Red Revolution

There is more to Cuba than fabulous cigars, 1950s cars, cheap rum, and music so infectious that even a Norwegian bachelor farmer will get up and dance to it. It also happens to be a showcase for policy transformation from industrialized agriculture to a greener, sustainable agriculture. Cuba has transformed its agriculture from a low productivity, highly subsidized, high input system to one that is more productive and greener, while removing subsidies. Urban agriculture, land reform, market reforms, and a complete reorientation of the university system all feature prominently in the policy reforms. Yet these green transformations are far from neo-liberalist; as one Cuban official told me, “We are, after all, Red.”