Urban-Agriculture

In Cuba, 1989, three times as much land was designated for commercial sugar farming as was for food crops. This resulted in the importation of half of the Cuban diet and a heavy reliance on commercial farming and its practices. When the Soviet bloc dissolved in 1990 this forced Cuba into a new agrarian reform upon the loss of its major trading partner and provider of monetary aid. Previously, Cuban sugar exports to Russia were paid 5.4 times more than the market value. This made an imbalanced agricultural model for Cuban and created a dependency on food imports.
The sudden need to feed its people on locally grown food pushed Cuba to self-reliance and created small urban farms since the state owned sugar plantations were no longer economically viable. Also, with the collapse of their export market, Cuba had to look to organic farming and biological solutions as they could no longer afford expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides.
The progress made by Cuba in self-sustainability and organic farming is amazing and reflects trends in urban-agriculture seen in other developing countries, such as in India. Today, Havana receives 90% of its produce needs from small home gardens and local urban farms. This is in sharp contrast to north American cities where much of the open space is landscaped or preserved in beltways. Although attitudes are changing, our western culture tends to view food production, such as a corn row in someone's front yard as a visual blight on the community or a sign of backwardness i.e. immigrant status. And depending on the local city codes, a garden in front of the house may even be illegal.
There is an obvious disparity in what these two cultures view as appropriate regarding the use of available space and urban-agriculture. The sustainable food and local food movement has seen a relaxing of local codes that now permit self-sufficiency and urban farming. For example; I know people that keep a few chickens in their backyards that would not have been able to legally do so ten years ago because of changes to local codes. These changes now permit "hobby farming" a name that belies the importance to the community. Also we are seeing a resurgence in community gardens and P-patches much like the victory gardens of WWI and WWII. All these changes show a trend that is more than just a fad, rather a true desire for self-sufficiency and a better quality of life.