Eli Pagola, presenter of Egonarria, has pointed out that the cultivation and feeding system of Cuba is inevitably agroecological, that is its hegemonic model. Amets Ladislao has explained the evolution of Cuba as "In Cuba, after the revolution, all the piles of chemical fertilizers and pesticides provided by the USSR. What was cultivated in Cuba at the time was tobacco and sugar, in the monoculture model. But when the USSR fell and suffered a global blockade, Cuba ran out of nothing and then saw the consequences of this production model: the land was completely dead, the tobacco monoculture and sugar could not be fed and could not buy anything outside Cuba. Then they had to take a radical turn on the productive model."

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Below are some ideas from the interview:

With the aim of feeding the people, preserving the environment and health

"They are very clear: we must feed the people. And it must also be sustainable," Ladislao stresses. After suffering the effects of chemical fertilizers, they do not want to kill the land of tomorrow. And all this has to do with health: "Medicine in Cuba is very important and they also make this food system for health: they know that if it is produced healthy the people will be healthier and then have less spending on health. They always have health present."

To feed the people in Cuba, today they produce a lot of vegetables, produce rice, fruit, milk (those under 12 years old have a program to take a liter of milk a day), meat... "The whole chain already has it and is totally diversified", according to Ladislao. They say they keep making tobacco and sugar. However, he explains that they have production deficits and that they are being tested to produce more.

 

System organized by the baserritars to meet local needs

"If you want to be a farmer in Cuba, the land is free. Earth is a right," explains Ladislao. But it is also important that land management should be geared towards food: "In the best lands they put vegetables and fruit, and then meat and milk production. Not like here, the best lands are in the industry, etc. I would say that Cuba is one of the few territories that are not baserritarras the last rear. People know how important it is for there to be baserritars and for there to be food of their own."

He explains that there are two types of companies for cultivation: one is state and some workers are peasants. On the other hand, cooperatives of farmers grouped in the ANAP structure. "These farmers' cooperatives must first sell it to the state and then there are several points of direct sale by Cuba, which if they want they can sell there," explains Ladislao. Remember that food is "subsidized" in Cuba through the famous booklet system.

But what is not so well known, and according to Ladislao, "what can be developed in the Basque Country, copied to 100%", is the organization of the municipality food: "Each municipality calculates how much this country eats. So, the City Hall sees how many producers there are in that locality and agrees with the producers before sowing. For example, if you need '1,000 kilos of cassava and there are 100 producers, each has to make ten' and they agree the price before sowing. That's a great certainty from a farmer's point of view."

What does the Cuban model provide?

In addition to the positive points he has pointed out during the interview, Ladislao has stated that from Cuba he would bring the following elements: "On the one hand, the organizational system: they buy things in a community way, each farmer does not have everything the same... No, they cannot do otherwise, they still have a community character and I think that is easy to bring here, because the first farms had this community character. And on the other hand it would bring the process, where they are very clear that agroecology is not an objective, it is a process of liberation". Ladislao has been very gracious that Europeans often understand agroecology as a set of techniques that "limit": that in Cuba they understand contradictions, errors and changes of decision.

Finally, he highlighted the methodology "From the peasant to the peasant": "When there is a problem in a farmhouse in Cuba, all the baserritars go to that farmhouse and see the problem and try to solve it among them. One will say 'well, I do this in my home', and another 'well I do this', and the others 'well I do this'... and among them they try to solve the problem. Of course, they meet monthly in the cooperative to address these issues. On the contrary, in other places the relationships are hierarchical: veterinary, technical, academic or I know what I know... but in Cuba they are very clear that the knowledge among the baserritars is what serves them. Academia is fine because it systematizes it, but in Cuba it is very clear that knowledge is peasant. And I think that's also very clear to us in the Etxalde group, we also do a lot of exchanges between the baserritars."

To learn more about the topic, a documentary on Cuban agroecology: