> And of course I'm no fan of Monsanto. I hate the way the choice is so
> often framed as Monsanto or Shiva's noble peasants. One of the
> interesting things about Cuba, which I'd like to learn more about, is
> how they combine a non-money-driven biotech with an ecological
> consciousness. Something like that's my model, but it rarely appears
> in the multiple choice tests.
>
> Doug
A few years ago Oxfam published a report on Cuba's agriculturel turnaround. Some of it was published on the web. The Radio station KGNU Boulder had professor Joel Edelstien interview the 2 authors of the report. They were impressed at how fast Cuba switched from an export oriented agriculturel system growing mostly sugarecain on large state run farms, to a system of small individually run farms growing a variety of food for domestic consumption. The individual farming families formed coops to share information and resources, such as re-learning how to use oxen instead of expensive to run tractors. What was also key to changing the system was the manner in which the Cuba's universities worked closely with the farmers doing research to quickly find the best organic farming methods. This doesn't sound like the caricature panted of communist centrally planned economies too cumbersome to meet the needs of its population. In fact it sounds less authoritarian than the US system where concentrated owenership and control of our economy lead to mass starvation during the depression.
Brad