Cuban Market. | Image: Courtesy of Ben Kucinski/Flickr/Creative Commons License
In partnership with UC Food Observer: The UC Food Observer is your daily serving of must-read news from the world of food, curated by the University of California. Follow on Twitter.
The UC Food Observer had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Sanchez recently about what normalizing relations with Cuba might mean for the food system in that nation and in the United States.
The U.S. is beginning the process of normalizing relations with Cuba. What is critical for Americans to understand about the Cuban food system?
Cuba is currently importing about 80% of its food at a cost of about $2B annually. This represents about 3% of the nation's GDP (Gross Domestic Product). That's a very high percentage. At the same time, Cuba has anywhere from 500,000 to one million hectares of prime quality land idled. These lands have excellent soils and are surrounded by good infrastructure, a fantastic opportunity. Cuba now has a program to transition those idle lands in the form of long-term leases to private farmers and farmer cooperatives. That's in progress.
As I understand it, a top priority of the Cuban government is now food security. Certainly importing so much food is not secure and food scarcities are common.
--
--
What do you think America can learn from Cuba in terms of agriculture and food systems?
There is a great deal to learn from Cuba. Cuba has gone through a unique series of up and downs. Before the revolution in 1959, there was a big landowner system with many poor people in the countryside. After the revolution, all lands were confiscated and put into large state farms, which was characteristic of the communist model that was in place at that time. Cuba was strongly supported by the Soviet Union and enjoyed very favorable terms of trade as a result. For example, the price of sugar at the time was probably along the lines of 4 cents (per pound), yet the Soviet Union was buying it at 40 cents.
On my first return visit - which was in 1975 - I saw enormous state farms and enormous machinery like something out of a Terminator movie. There were excessive amounts of irrigation and fertilizers being used. This was essentially subsidized by the Soviet bloc. In 1989-90, the collapse of the Soviet Union halted these subsidies.
This caused Cuba to be on its own, isolated from most of the rest of the world. The GDP contracted by 15% the economy experienced negative growth. Cuba was not able to import fertilizers or other inputs and certainly not much food. It was a very bad situation. Cuba's response was to turn to organic production and hunker down. And this is where there can be tremendous lessons for the United States and the world. Cuba is now moving towards a market-oriented agriculture.
For most Cubans farmers, organic farming was and is not an ideological issue. The nation simply didn't have access to fertilizers. Cuba has done a tremendous amount of unique research in developing organic fertilizers, composts and so on, including how to make mycorrhizas more effective, with good effects at the farm level. One of the challenges for Cuban scientists is that they have been limited in the publications in which they can publish their work. So much excellent work has been done, but there is little in the peer-reviewed literature. There has been much long-term worthwhile research that has not yet been published.
Cuban Farmer. | Image: Courtesy of Ben Kucinski/Flickr/Creative Commons License
We've heard quite a bit about urban agriculture in Cuba. What have you seen?
When Cuba went organic, it encouraged production in and around cities. This last June (2015) I traveled to Cuba and saw two urban agricultural operations within the city limits of Havana. I was very impressed. Cuba has many high-fertility soils and producers have added tremendous amounts of organic materials to it. They are producing large amounts of vegetables and some fruits for markets in Havana. What I saw was beautiful and scientifically very exciting. Cuban producers are using new techniques that should be studied and quantified. I'm looking forward to seeing some whole life-cycle analysis on these farms. This is in contrast to Africa where most soils are depleted of their nutrients and it makes no sense to go organic on such soils.
The organic production of vegetables and fruit is without a doubt an enormous success that we can learn from. The way Cubans have organized labor, etc., is wonderful and I'm very impressed. But producing vegetables and fruits does not solve the larger issue of producing carbohydrates and protein. Cuba is now trying to extrapolate these lessons to these critical crop and livestock production areas (including rice and black beans, the staple food). I think there are some trials in progress and I'd like to see them.
--
--
What sorts of change might we see in Cuba's food production model?
Now Cuba is looking at a more business-oriented type of agriculture. The government has given long-term leases to farmers and farmer cooperatives to grow crops as they see fit that's going on right now. The information they have provided me is that these private farms occupy about 30% of the current agricultural area and produce approximately 70% of the food. The state farms occupy about 70% of the agricultural area and produce about 30% of the food. I believe we will see more movement from the state farm model into more private enterprise models.
One of the challenges is going to be demographics. Early in the revolution people from the countryside were moved into towns and cities. There are not many people who know agriculture, except the older farmers, many of whom are in their 70s (like me). So Cuba will need to get young college students to enter careers in agriculture and m
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
19/08/2026
As the cost of IP nears price parity with traditional SDI, Reynolds argues that ...
19/08/2026
A private 5G bubble was chosen instead of traditional broadcast RF for the race ...
19/08/2026
(L-R) Rafael Manuel and Isabel Sicat attend the Filipi ana premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 23, 2026, in Park Cit...
19/08/2026
Studio owners invited to have their say on rates cuts
The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that ...
19/08/2026
Vintage-inspired desktop interface revealed
Harrison's latest hardware offering sees them head into the world of audio interfaces, delivering a 10-in/12...
19/08/2026
Granular effect remains locked to scale and tempo
Described as your dream granular effect , Minimal Audio's latest creation is capable of turning any s...
19/08/2026
First polyphonic SWAM instrument incoming
Audio Modeling's latest physical-modelling orchestral instrument is just around the corner, and is now availab...
19/08/2026
World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...
19/08/2026
July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...
19/08/2026
iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...
19/08/2026
NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...
19/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...
19/08/2026
LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...
19/08/2026
Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF
Brie Clayton August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Filming endangered turtles required camera...
19/08/2026
Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...
19/08/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...
19/08/2026
Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows
EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...
19/08/2026
Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...
19/08/2026
Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...
19/08/2026
There's an early Christmas gift for Bookish fans, as UKTV confirms the re-commission of the hit U&alibi drama, created by and starring Mark Gatiss. Viewers ...
19/08/2026
Wednesday 19 August 2026
Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
18/08/2026
Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...
18/08/2026
Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...
18/08/2026
For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...
18/08/2026
TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...
18/08/2026
SMT will provide race technology for FOX Sports' coverage of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. on August 23, when the NTT INDYCAR SERIES races ...
18/08/2026
The live, YouTube-native roundtables combine fan voices, credentialed reporters,...
18/08/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/08/2026
The industry legend sounds off on replacing the Heat's iconic Medusa score...
18/08/2026
William F. Rasmussen, the sports fan-turned broadcaster and entrepreneur whose out-of-the-box idea of a 24-hour cable sports network, ESPN, changed forever the ...
18/08/2026
DAZN Group has completed its acquisition of ViewLift, a provider of streaming and digital solutions for sports content owners. The acquisition was first announc...
18/08/2026
The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) has added SI TV, Sports Illustrated's 24/7 streaming channel, as a broadcast partner for the remain...
18/08/2026
The Esports Foundation has announced that the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC), originally scheduled for November 2026 in Riyadh, will be postponed to Novemb...
18/08/2026
Diversified has announced a new Global Managed Services Practice, consolidating the company's managed services capabilities into one organization. Rob Mello...
18/08/2026
Appear has completed a proof of concept with Thoroughbred Racing Productions (TRP), demonstrating multi-camera remote live production over bonded 5G cellular an...
Cuban Market. | Image: Courtesy of Ben Kucinski/Flickr/Creative Commons License 
