Finding the Intersection of Hope and Action in Cuba
The following post has been re-posted with the expressed permission of IATP and the author, Mark Muller. Muller directs the Kellogg Food and Society Fellows program. Find more posts from the Food and Society Fellows at http://foodandsocietyfellows.org/ (or via the link under our blogroll).Following a Kellogg Fellows Leadership Alliance meeting in Tulum, Mexico titled “Finding the Intersection of Hope and Action” we had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to tour food, health and agriculture systems in Cuba. Several Food and Society Fellows participated in the forum in Tulum, and ten fellows, with IATP’s Abby Rogosheske and myself, continued on for the Cuba trip. The themes of the forum were hope and action, and we found plenty of both in Cuba.
It will take a long time before we can appropriately digest everything we saw and heard during the trip. Cuban society functions so much differently than other Latin American countries, let alone the United States. Some observations of interest:
- A University of Havana professor told us that 78 percent of Cuban food is imported.
- The Cuban government is creating incentives for people to cultivate the more than three million hectares of land that is idle, and has closed several sugar mills because of the low price of sugar and to encourage more food production for domestic use, like milk and vegetables.
- At the successful vegetable farms we visited, farm workers would often earn a better salary than a doctor.
- We saw very few grocery stores in Cuba, and those that we did had an extremely limited number of products. It was the first grocery store that I have ever been to that didn’t have Coca Cola or PepsiCo products!
The trip provided a fascinating glimpse into an economic and political structure foreign to most in the United States. We have already had some interesting discussions about the pluses and minuses of the Cuban approach. And perhaps most usefully, Cuba has created an 11-million-person experiment on how to manage food and health systems. As we prepare for a world with a changing climate, reduced fossil fuels and complex international relations, Cuba provides some examples of both what to do and what not to do.
Wow…What a Forum We Just Experienced
On behalf of your KFLA team in Denver, thank you for being with us at our 3rd Forum focused on Hope and Action. We left feeling that having you - “face to face” - he a lo a he a lo - was very special. We felt that we accomplished what we set out to do - provide you with an opportunity to renew, connect and leverage the power of the network.
Janice Levy from class 11 did a phenomenal job along with her student Mike Grippi. They have sent us many images of you, meeting face to face which we will be uploading for you to see and to take the ones that speak to you. Also, if you have taken pictures that you want to share, please upload them to Shot54ran@photos.flickr.com
We recorded some of the sessions and they will be ready for you to view in the upcoming weeks. For those of you that wish to blog about your experience and also want to organize a group to continue what you started at Forum in Tulum please let Dave Suss know at dsuss@kelloggfellows.org
You all met Ana Maria from Chile. She and her family are ok - shaken but ok. We have 11 fellows in Chile We have heard as of today from 5 of them. We will keep you informed as we learn what is happening and how we could be of help. Thank you for those of you that gave money for Haiti during our gathering. Our donation site on Haiti is still open. As soon as we get all of the 11 Chileans accounted for, we will let you know how we all can be of help.
We want you to know that the staff at the hotel said that they had never had a group like ours on their property. They were extremely touched by the details such as you leaving tips in the rooms and for the gift that we left for them as a group as well as having the opportunity to come and see FotoVoz.
The Year of the Tiger is here - filled with challenges and opportunities - May this year provide you with opportunities to innovate and to work thru some of your challenges. And as one of our presenters shared with us, each story has two faces - let’s continue to share both. May the time you spent with your Fellow Fellows in Tulum, continue to provide you with hope, inspiration and gratitude as we move this tiger year into action. Martha
PS: The planning team is already hard at work for Forum 11 in Washington, DC - mark your calendars for March 2-5, 2011.