Appendix I Land Distribution by Sector and Activity (December 31, 1997) (Measured in thousands of hectares)

Activity

UBPC

CPA

CCS

Nonaffiliated Other

Total private

State

Total

Permanent crops

1,551

280

165

36

12

2,044

563

2,607

Sugarcane

1,287

218

58

9

0.1

1,572

298

1,770

Coffee

31

20

40

7

10

107

34

141

Cacao

2

1

4

0.2

0.4

8

2

92

Plaintains

29

13

16

7

0.8

66

57

123

Citrus

39

4

8

1

0.3

52

41

93

Other fruit

17

9

23

6

0.5

55

29

84

145

14

14

5

0.3

177

189

366

2

1

3

1

0.3

6

14

20

187

92

310

128

37

754

335

1,089

65

15

18

7

2

107

118

225

104

64

226

84

22

499

189

688

Tobacco

5

10

32

2

10

59

8

67

Pasture

5

0.3

1

0.2

0

6

4

10

Other

9

3

33

36

2

83

16

100

Nurseries and seed beds

1

0.3

0.3

0

0

1

5

6

1,739

372

475

164

49

2,798

903

3,701

Pasture Other

Temporary Crops Rice Various crops

Cultivated land

UBPC is a basic unit of cooperative production. CPA is an agricultral production cooperative. CCS is a credit and services cooperative.

Appendix II Food Production in Cuba (1994 to 1999) (Measured in thousands tons)

Product Root crops & plaintains Vegetables Rice Corn Beans Citrus Other fruits Beef Pork Fowl Sheep Milk Eggs (hundreds of thousands)

1988

1994

1995

1996

1997

1998

Growth rate 1999 94 to 98/99

998.1 1,071.9 1,246.4 1,560.5 1,356.5 1,383.7 1,662.4 675.6 433.6 518.4 631.7 601 846.5 1,442.5 488.9 387.6 396.1 572.9 614.2 441.6 567.3 35.6 98.5 103.8 143.9 202.5 176.6 237.7 14.8 22.3 24.5 29.1 33.4 42.2 76.8 981 540.4 585.4 690.4 834.6 744.5 794.6 269.4 153.9 165.9 161.4 162.8 253.5 464.6 128.5 134.6 143.8 141.1 148.1 152.4 176.8 162.8 176.1 169.2 182.3 68.8 72.7 74.8 79.2 72.6 74.2 12.1 7.3 6.5 8.4 8.3 11.4 635.6 638.5 668.6 708.1 655.3 617.8 1,647.4 1,542.5 1,412.5 1,631.6 1,415.7 1,753

146% 246% 14% 79% 303% 50% 220% 15% 3% 6% 3% 3% 6%

(Figures for 1988 and 1994 to 98 include commercialized food and food produced for family consumption.) (Source: figures for 1988 and 1994 to 1998 from Anuario Estadístico de Cuba, p. 182; figures for 1999 from Cuba en Cifras 1999, p. 149.)

Appendix III Food Imports Annual Imports: • 1 million metric tons (MT) of feed grains. Corn usually is supplied by Argentina, and feed wheat is generally supplied by eastern Europe (with inconsistent quality). • More than 450,000 MT of soybeans. • 30,000-40,000 MT of high-quality corn for industrial uses such as glucose manufacturing for the pharmaceutical industry. • 100,000 MT of chicken and pork meat—most supplied by Canada, but some from Brazil. • 15,000 MT of cooking oil. • 30,000 MT of malt supplied by France. • 250,000 MT of soybean meal. • 35,000-45,000 MT of powdered milk—supplied by the EU. (Source: U.S. Grains Council)

Endnotes 1

See, for example, The Greening of the Revolution, Peter Rosset and Medea Benjamin, eds.

2

In 1995 Cuba spent 64,611,000 pesos on imported herbicides and pesticides. In 1998 the figure had dropped to 63,345,000 pesos, according to government statistics. Imports in fertilizer likewise dropped, from 105,993,000 pesos to 55,978,000 pesos over the same period. In both categories the overall volume of imports dropped as well.

3

4

See “The Impact of the New Economic Model on Latin America’s Agriculture,” by M. Beatriz De A. David, Martin Dirven and Frank Vogelgesang, researchers for the Economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), in World Development, Volume 28, Issue 9, September 2000 (pages 1673-1688). Most of the so-called Soviet subsidies were generated from a bilateral agreement permanently setting the rates of the exchange of Cuban sugar for Soviet oil before the 1973 oil price hikes. Thus Cuba received close to 13 million tons annually of Soviet oil effectively at one-third of the market price.

5

In a May 2001 interview with an Oxfam America delegation, Dr. Alfredo Gutiérrez Yanis, the Vice Minister for Development of the Ministry of Agriculture, summarized the impact of the collapse of Soviet Union. After Cuba lost the favorable terms of trade (trading one ton of sugar for 7 or 8 tons of refined oil), their agriculture imports dropped. In addition to the other figures cited, Cuba used to import 2 million tons of animal feed; it now imports only 500,000 tons.

6

In addition to the direct economic impact of these measures, an untold number of foreign companies pulled out of Cuba or avoided trading with or investing in Cuba because of fear of reprisals from the U.S. Foreign companies have particularly avoided investing in or providing loans to Cuban agriculture (only 24 of the 357 joint enterprises have been in the agriculture sector through 1999), in part because Cuban agriculture today is to a large extent based on expropriated properties. Foreign companies fear that their activities would be targeted under Helms-Burton legislation for extra-territorial sanctions.

7

A rusted tractor lay disassembled in the front yard while an old man kicked off fresh dirt that clung to a wooden, handmade plow. Sonia, an elected leader of the Jose Marti credit and service cooperative in the village of Mamonal, said the decision to give up mechanized agriculture and begin farming by hand was “forced” upon them because “the most powerful country in the world,” she said, “punishes us.” She blames the Helms-Burton law which made rural life “without fertilizer, without pesticides, without any of the things we need to survive.” The blockade, she said, “is unjust and a human tragedy.”

8

Through the 1980s Cuba dedicated 57% of all arable land to export crops and only 43% to production for internal consumption, which meant that Cubans relied on Soviet bloc imports for much of their food, especially processed food; 90% of all fats and oils were imported, 80% of beans, 40% of rice, 24% of milk—in short, 55% of all calories consumed on the ration card.

9

Mavis Alvarez directs the project office of the National Association of Small Producers (ANAP).

10

Cuba could not count on much foreign assistance either. The country received $67 million in development assistance in 1997, compared to $1 billion annually in trade subsidies through the 1980s from the Soviet Union and eastern Europe.

11

The decree affected 2,756,000 hectares of land in Cuba.

12

Not all of the state-sector farms were converted into UBPCs. The state still owns and operates 33% of the arable land, 2,234,500 hectares, including the sugar mills, agricultural companies, and other production enterprises. Some of these enterprises opted against becoming UBPCs; others, the state, for a variety of reasons, wanted to continue to own and operate. Part of the farmland classified as state land belongs to the military for agricultural production. The military operates large farms on this land with the labor of military enlistees. They supply the barracks and other military institutions with foodstuffs and provide self-provisioning for the military. In recent years, the military farms have periodically sold surplus produce or animals to the general public at below market cost. The army therefore plays a sporadic but public role in increasing the supply of cheap food available to the population.

13

The government was also motivated by fiscal policy. By converting state farms to private cooperatives, the government passed the farm and its debt to the cooperatives. Now, instead of subsidizing state enterprises, the government lends money to the cooperatives, which significantly improved the government’s domestic debt ratio.

14

As formulated by Niurka Pérez, director of the Rural Studies unit at the Sociology Department of the University of Havana.

15

As considered by Victor Figueroa, an agricultural specialist at the Universidad Central de las Villas.

16

Private landowners (including members of credit and service coops) now control 687,600 hectares and farm 18.6% of all arable land in Cuba, up from 11.8% in 1989.

17

Since their founding in the late 1970s, the agricultural production cooperatives (CPAs) have received enormous investments from the government to mechanize agriculture and to improve the living conditions of their membership.

18

Of the 791,900 tons of vegetables produced in Cuba in 1998, 440,900 tons were produced by the organopónicos alone.

19

The variety of natural enemies used in Cuban agriculture is further detailed in Ivette Perfecto’s “The transformation of Cuban Agriculture after the Cold War”. Dr. Perfecto, among other scholars, accompanied Peter Rosset during the research trip which later served as a basis for The Greening of the Revolution.

20

There are Ministry officials, though in the minority, who differ with Juan José León Vega. One official, with a Ph.D. in agronomy, considered diversification along with animal traction and organic use “a return to the Medieval Ages.”

21

In the 1980s El Vaquerito obtained yields of 70 tons per hectare; presently their yields are around 39 tons.

22

Now expanded to 304 agricultural markets.

23

Many products once readily available through the libreta, such as milk products, cannot be purchased either in the agricultural markets or from nontraditional producers and are available only in dollars through the government-run dollar stores. The exception to this is the liter a day of milk products that the government provides to all children through age 7, pregnant and lactating women and patients who need special diets. Cubans who have the funds purchase items in insufficient supply, such as eggs and oil, in the dollar stores. The prices in the dollar stores are prohibitive for Cubans. A liter of oil costs $2.40 or the equivalent of 25% of a month’s salary for the average person.

24

From 1995 to 1997 state farms doubled their “market share” of produce sold in the agricultural markets from 21% of the vegetables and 20% of the meat products to 41% of the vegetables and 39% of the meats.

25

The state-run distribution system sold one-third less fruits and vegetables in 1998 than it did in 1995, although state sales of all types of food did increase slightly (3% per year) over the past four years (Annuario Estadîstico de Cuba, p. 240).

26

Private farmers and cooperatives enter a contract with the state (called a plan) that, in exchange for subsidized agricultural inputs, insurance, and credit, they will sell their goods, or a percentage of their goods, to the state (often at low prices). Some goods—beef, eggs, tobacco, potatoes, milk products, sugar, coffee, and honey—are barred from sale in the agricultural markets and can be sold only to the state. Other goods are produced in such abundance that they saturate local markets and only state-run processing plants can effectively absorb the produce. State contracts have advantages (stability and guaranteed market) and disadvantages (often low prices paid to the farmers and inefficiencies).

27

It is interesting to note that many farmers do not perceive the improved income as a sign of recovery. To them, the fact that the government subsidies on inputs and infrastructure are the real indicators of recovery and until those go back up to pre-crisis levels, the farmers are not convinced that the sector has recovered.

28

A comparison of statistics from Cuban government sources and U.N. sources show some variance due to differences in accounting methods though the growth trends within each database are roughly parallel. A healthy skepticism of statistical evidence alone is advisable though anecdotal evidence and extensive field visits also corroborate the general trends offered by the statistical analysis.

29

And considerably less than the 1980 levels. Milk production was at 655 thousand metric tons in 1998, one-third less than the 919 thousand metric tons produced in 1988. Similarly 1998 beef production in both private and state farms in 1998 was at 459.7 thousand metric tons, just slightly more than half of the 896.4 thousand metric tons produced solely by the state in 1988.

30

1.4 million hectares were under sugar cultivation (and 175,000 hectares with irrigation) compared to 1.8 million in 1990 (and 391,000 with irrigation).

31

See footnote #2.

32

Shortly after the bill’s passage, a Cuban official said that the country would not purchase “a single aspirin or single grain of corn” because the overall aim of the bill was to “hurt our country’s dignity.”

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