How they grow crops in Cuba with little fuel or pesticides
 

I was just watching this documentary:

The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Decompressed is 700 megs downloaded from:
alt.binaries.documentaries - posted there 7-11-08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pow...Cuba_Survived_
Peak_Oil


By "peak oil" they mean the supply of oil peaked and then fell well
below demand. In the 1950s, Cuba used to guzzle fuel like Americans did.
Although Cuban's energy crisis was once much more severe than it is
today, per person Cubans consume only 12% of what Americans use. This
documentary describes how Cuba copes and suggests that the US will one
day go through that and have to discover ways of coping.

In Cuba there is little fuel or pesticides to grow food with. The way
the embargo works is that any ship that docks in Cuba is banned from the
US for 6 months. So Cubans have had to learn to grow crops with little
more than physical labor. They've gone back to using oxen to plow
fields; Older Cubans who remembered how to use oxen were necessary to
teach people how to train the oxen of which now there are thousands in
Cuba. The government leased land to small farmers rent free, but if
crops weren't grown on the land they would take it back and lease it to
someone else. Or they'd take the land back if it was needed for
something else.

To eliminate the need for pesticides they combine many different crops
on small farms which help prevent pests from spreading. Apparently most
insects eat only one or two crops. "If you have one million pounds of
corn, you will have one million bugs that eat only corn." They have also
developed "bio-pesticides" and "bio-fertilizers" and even export them.
80% of their crops are organic. In the 1980s they used 21 thousand tons
of pesticides; Today it's 1 thousand ton. I noticed the older Cuban
people look considerably healthier than their counter-parts in the US
although their life span and infant mortality rates are similar to the
US.

They extend the growing season with a simple canopy over the crop using
a porous fabric. They also use green houses made with a similar fabric
to reduce the heat and radiation, and also to exclude more of the bugs.

With less fuel for transportation, Cuba's higher education has been
decentralized, going from 3 big universities to 50 small ones. Cuba does
trade with Venezuela. Cuba trains doctors and sends them to Venezuela.

(This bit wasn't in the documentary) The US was behind the attempt to
give Venezuela's currency to certain bankers and was behind the attempt
to oust President Hugo Chavez when he refused. (Most currency around the
world is issued by privately owned banks).


"To be politically independent they have to be economically independent.
To be economically independent they have to be energy independent."

Cuba's mass transit system includes trucks converted into buses. They
developed the "camel" which is an 18 wheeler that can carry up to 300
people. Car pooling and hitch-hiking are common. Government vehicles are
required to pick up anyone who needs a ride. Small towns turned to
horses and mules for transportation. Bicycles have come into much
greater use in Cuba for short distances. Cement requires a lot of fuel
to make so building materials are scarce as are also also tools to build
them, yet 85% of Cubans own their own home, most of which are small.
City dwellers tend to live in crowded, dilapidated apartments.

Some Cubans would use a simple solar heater for showering and to preheat
water for boiling to save fuel (shows a metal tank elevated on an 8 ft
stand). Electric solar panels are used in rural schools and clinics.
Cuba does drill for oil, but its poor quality crude is bad for the
environment, but they had to use it to generate electricity. Sugar mills
are used to make fuel to generate electricity when that crop is in
season.

Although Cuban farmers are more wealthy than the average Cuban, there's
a lot of charity with people feeding their elderly neighbors, pregnant
women, giving food to schools, etc. Cubans know their neighbors a lot
better than Americans do. I guess the reason Cubans are better quality
of people is most the greedy Cubans have fled for the US. There's not
much to steal. They also seem happier, more content and more laid back
than Americans. It's the simple life in Cuba, but the people there seem
happy.

How they grow crops in Cuba with little fuel or pesticides
 

On Sep 19, 10:25*pm, (Ralph) wrote:
I was just watching this documentary:

The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Decompressed is 700 megs downloaded from:
alt.binaries.documentaries - posted there 7-11-08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pow...Cuba_Survived_
Peak_Oil

By "peak oil" they mean the supply of oil peaked and then fell well
below demand. In the 1950s, Cuba used to guzzle fuel like Americans did.
Although Cuban's energy crisis was once much more severe than it is
today, per person Cubans consume only 12% of what Americans use. This
documentary describes how Cuba copes and suggests that the US will one
day go through that and have to discover ways of coping.

In Cuba there is little fuel or pesticides to grow food with. The way
the embargo works is that any ship that docks in Cuba is banned from the
US for 6 months. So Cubans have had to learn to grow crops with little
more than physical labor. They've gone back to using oxen to plow
fields; Older Cubans who remembered how to use oxen were necessary to
teach people how to train the oxen of which now there are thousands in
Cuba. The government leased land to small farmers rent free, but if
crops weren't grown on the land they would take it back and lease it to
someone else. Or they'd take the land back if it was needed for
something else.

To eliminate the need for pesticides they combine many different crops
on small farms which help prevent pests from spreading. Apparently most
insects eat only one or two crops. "If you have one million pounds of
corn, you will have one million bugs that eat only corn." They have also
developed "bio-pesticides" and "bio-fertilizers" and even export them.
80% of their crops are organic. In the 1980s they used 21 thousand tons
of pesticides; Today it's 1 thousand ton. I noticed the older Cuban
people look considerably healthier than their counter-parts in the US
although their life span and infant mortality rates are similar to the
US.

They extend the growing season with a simple canopy over the crop using
a porous fabric. They also use green houses made with a similar fabric
to reduce the heat and radiation, and also to exclude more of the bugs.

With less fuel for transportation, Cuba's higher education has been
decentralized, going from 3 big universities to 50 small ones. Cuba does
trade with Venezuela. Cuba trains doctors and sends them to Venezuela.

(This bit wasn't in the documentary) The US was behind the attempt to
give Venezuela's currency to certain bankers and was behind the attempt
to oust President Hugo Chavez when he refused. (Most currency around the
world is issued by privately owned banks).

"To be politically independent they have to be economically independent.
To be economically independent they have to be energy independent."

Cuba's mass transit system includes trucks converted into buses. They
developed the "camel" which is an 18 wheeler that can carry up to 300
people. Car pooling and hitch-hiking are common. Government vehicles are
required to pick up anyone who needs a ride. Small towns turned to
horses and mules for transportation. Bicycles have come into much
greater use in Cuba for short distances. Cement requires a lot of fuel
to make so building materials are scarce as are also also tools to build
them, yet 85% of Cubans own their own home, most of which are small.
City dwellers tend to live in crowded, dilapidated apartments.

Some Cubans would use a simple solar heater for showering and to preheat
water for boiling to save fuel (shows a metal tank elevated on an 8 ft
stand). Electric solar panels are used in rural schools and clinics.
Cuba does drill for oil, but its poor quality crude is bad for the
environment, but they had to use it to generate electricity. Sugar mills
are used to make fuel to generate electricity when that crop is in
season.

Although Cuban farmers are more wealthy than the average Cuban, there's
a lot of charity with people feeding their elderly neighbors, pregnant
women, giving food to schools, etc. Cubans know their neighbors a lot
better than Americans do. I guess the reason Cubans are better quality
of people is most the greedy Cubans have fled for the US. There's not
much to steal. They also seem happier, more content and more laid back
than Americans. It's the simple life in Cuba, but the people there seem
happy.


I think Fidel and his cast of commies who hold an entire impoverished
country prisoner under a failed economic system should get a few books
to read about the miracle of capitalism and freedoom. What a great
system communism is. They use mules and horses for transporation,
convert 50 year old trucks to buses, can't even afford cement and
people write books as if this were a great achievement. If you think
the kind of life they have in Cuba is so groovey, don't come here and
tell us how much happier they are than Americans. Just go live
there. After all, that is one of the basic freedoms you have here
that those living at the subsistance level in Cuba don't.

How they grow crops in Cuba with little fuel or pesticides
 

wrote:
On Sep 19, 10:25 pm, (Ralph) wrote:
I was just watching this documentary:

The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Decompressed is 700 megs downloaded from:
alt.binaries.documentaries - posted there 7-11-08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pow...Cuba_Survived_
Peak_Oil

By "peak oil" they mean the supply of oil peaked and then fell well
below demand. In the 1950s, Cuba used to guzzle fuel like Americans did.
Although Cuban's energy crisis was once much more severe than it is
today, per person Cubans consume only 12% of what Americans use. This
documentary describes how Cuba copes and suggests that the US will one
day go through that and have to discover ways of coping.

In Cuba there is little fuel or pesticides to grow food with. The way
the embargo works is that any ship that docks in Cuba is banned from the
US for 6 months. So Cubans have had to learn to grow crops with little
more than physical labor. They've gone back to using oxen to plow
fields; Older Cubans who remembered how to use oxen were necessary to
teach people how to train the oxen of which now there are thousands in
Cuba. The government leased land to small farmers rent free, but if
crops weren't grown on the land they would take it back and lease it to
someone else. Or they'd take the land back if it was needed for
something else.

To eliminate the need for pesticides they combine many different crops
on small farms which help prevent pests from spreading. Apparently most
insects eat only one or two crops. "If you have one million pounds of
corn, you will have one million bugs that eat only corn." They have also
developed "bio-pesticides" and "bio-fertilizers" and even export them.
80% of their crops are organic. In the 1980s they used 21 thousand tons
of pesticides; Today it's 1 thousand ton. I noticed the older Cuban
people look considerably healthier than their counter-parts in the US
although their life span and infant mortality rates are similar to the
US.

They extend the growing season with a simple canopy over the crop using
a porous fabric. They also use green houses made with a similar fabric
to reduce the heat and radiation, and also to exclude more of the bugs.

With less fuel for transportation, Cuba's higher education has been
decentralized, going from 3 big universities to 50 small ones. Cuba does
trade with Venezuela. Cuba trains doctors and sends them to Venezuela.

(This bit wasn't in the documentary) The US was behind the attempt to
give Venezuela's currency to certain bankers and was behind the attempt
to oust President Hugo Chavez when he refused. (Most currency around the
world is issued by privately owned banks).

"To be politically independent they have to be economically independent.
To be economically independent they have to be energy independent."

Cuba's mass transit system includes trucks converted into buses. They
developed the "camel" which is an 18 wheeler that can carry up to 300
people. Car pooling and hitch-hiking are common. Government vehicles are
required to pick up anyone who needs a ride. Small towns turned to
horses and mules for transportation. Bicycles have come into much
greater use in Cuba for short distances. Cement requires a lot of fuel
to make so building materials are scarce as are also also tools to build
them, yet 85% of Cubans own their own home, most of which are small.
City dwellers tend to live in crowded, dilapidated apartments.

Some Cubans would use a simple solar heater for showering and to preheat
water for boiling to save fuel (shows a metal tank elevated on an 8 ft
stand). Electric solar panels are used in rural schools and clinics.
Cuba does drill for oil, but its poor quality crude is bad for the
environment, but they had to use it to generate electricity. Sugar mills
are used to make fuel to generate electricity when that crop is in
season.

Although Cuban farmers are more wealthy than the average Cuban, there's
a lot of charity with people feeding their elderly neighbors, pregnant
women, giving food to schools, etc. Cubans know their neighbors a lot
better than Americans do. I guess the reason Cubans are better quality
of people is most the greedy Cubans have fled for the US. There's not
much to steal. They also seem happier, more content and more laid back
than Americans. It's the simple life in Cuba, but the people there seem
happy.


I think Fidel and his cast of commies who hold an entire impoverished
country prisoner under a failed economic system should get a few books
to read about the miracle of capitalism and freedoom. What a great
system communism is. They use mules and horses for transporation,
convert 50 year old trucks to buses, can't even afford cement and
people write books as if this were a great achievement. If you think
the kind of life they have in Cuba is so groovey, don't come here and
tell us how much happier they are than Americans. Just go live
there. After all, that is one of the basic freedoms you have here
that those living at the subsistance level in Cuba don't.

You're awfully touchy. Why does being energy independent and nearly
pesticide free bother you?

How they grow crops in Cuba with little fuel or pesticides
 

On Sep 20, 2:32*pm, FDR fdr@kjdfgkdfkl wrote:
wrote:
On Sep 19, 10:25 pm, (Ralph) wrote:
I was just watching this documentary:

The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Decompressed is 700 megs downloaded from:
alt.binaries.documentaries - posted there 7-11-08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pow...Cuba_Survived_
Peak_Oil

By "peak oil" they mean the supply of oil peaked and then fell well
below demand. In the 1950s, Cuba used to guzzle fuel like Americans did.
Although Cuban's energy crisis was once much more severe than it is
today, per person Cubans consume only 12% of what Americans use. This
documentary describes how Cuba copes and suggests that the US will one
day go through that and have to discover ways of coping.

In Cuba there is little fuel or pesticides to grow food with. The way
the embargo works is that any ship that docks in Cuba is banned from the
US for 6 months. So Cubans have had to learn to grow crops with little
more than physical labor. They've gone back to using oxen to plow
fields; Older Cubans who remembered how to use oxen were necessary to
teach people how to train the oxen of which now there are thousands in
Cuba. The government leased land to small farmers rent free, but if
crops weren't grown on the land they would take it back and lease it to
someone else. Or they'd take the land back if it was needed for
something else.

To eliminate the need for pesticides they combine many different crops
on small farms which help prevent pests from spreading. Apparently most
insects eat only one or two crops. "If you have one million pounds of
corn, you will have one million bugs that eat only corn." They have also
developed "bio-pesticides" and "bio-fertilizers" and even export them.
80% of their crops are organic. In the 1980s they used 21 thousand tons
of pesticides; Today it's 1 thousand ton. I noticed the older Cuban
people look considerably healthier than their counter-parts in the US
although their life span and infant mortality rates are similar to the
US.

They extend the growing season with a simple canopy over the crop using
a porous fabric. They also use green houses made with a similar fabric
to reduce the heat and radiation, and also to exclude more of the bugs..

With less fuel for transportation, Cuba's higher education has been
decentralized, going from 3 big universities to 50 small ones. Cuba does
trade with Venezuela. Cuba trains doctors and sends them to Venezuela.

(This bit wasn't in the documentary) The US was behind the attempt to
give Venezuela's currency to certain bankers and was behind the attempt
to oust President Hugo Chavez when he refused. (Most currency around the
world is issued by privately owned banks).

"To be politically independent they have to be economically independent.

How they grow crops in Cuba with little fuel or pesticides
 

wrote:
On Sep 20, 2:32 pm, FDR fdr@kjdfgkdfkl wrote:
wrote:
On Sep 19, 10:25 pm, (Ralph) wrote:
I was just watching this documentary:
The Power of Community - How Cuba Survived Peak Oil
Decompressed is 700 megs downloaded from:
alt.binaries.documentaries - posted there 7-11-08
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pow...Cuba_Survived_
Peak_Oil
By "peak oil" they mean the supply of oil peaked and then fell well
below demand. In the 1950s, Cuba used to guzzle fuel like Americans did.
Although Cuban's energy crisis was once much more severe than it is
today, per person Cubans consume only 12% of what Americans use. This
documentary describes how Cuba copes and suggests that the US will one
day go through that and have to discover ways of coping.
In Cuba there is little fuel or pesticides to grow food with. The way
the embargo works is that any ship that docks in Cuba is banned from the
US for 6 months. So Cubans have had to learn to grow crops with little
more than physical labor. They've gone back to using oxen to plow
fields; Older Cubans who remembered how to use oxen were necessary to
teach people how to train the oxen of which now there are thousands in
Cuba. The government leased land to small farmers rent free, but if
crops weren't grown on the land they would take it back and lease it to
someone else. Or they'd take the land back if it was needed for
something else.
To eliminate the need for pesticides they combine many different crops
on small farms which help prevent pests from spreading. Apparently most
insects eat only one or two crops. "If you have one million pounds of
corn, you will have one million bugs that eat only corn." They have also
developed "bio-pesticides" and "bio-fertilizers" and even export them.
80% of their crops are organic. In the 1980s they used 21 thousand tons
of pesticides; Today it's 1 thousand ton. I noticed the older Cuban
people look considerably healthier than their counter-parts in the US
although their life span and infant mortality rates are similar to the
US.
They extend the growing season with a simple canopy over the crop using
a porous fabric. They also use green houses made with a similar fabric
to reduce the heat and radiation, and also to exclude more of the bugs.
With less fuel for transportation, Cuba's higher education has been
decentralized, going from 3 big universities to 50 small ones. Cuba does
trade with Venezuela. Cuba trains doctors and sends them to Venezuela.
(This bit wasn't in the documentary) The US was behind the attempt to
give Venezuela's currency to certain bankers and was behind the attempt
to oust President Hugo Chavez when he refused. (Most currency around the
world is issued by privately owned banks).
"To be politically independent they have to be economically independent.
To be economically independent they have to be energy independent."
Cuba's mass transit system includes trucks converted into buses. They
developed the "camel" which is an 18 wheeler that can carry up to 300
people. Car pooling and hitch-hiking are common. Government vehicles are
required to pick up anyone who needs a ride. Small towns turned to
horses and mules for transportation. Bicycles have come into much
greater use in Cuba for short distances. Cement requires a lot of fuel
to make so building materials are scarce as are also also tools to build
them, yet 85% of Cubans own their own home, most of which are small.
City dwellers tend to live in crowded, dilapidated apartments.
Some Cubans would use a simple solar heater for showering and to preheat
water for boiling to save fuel (shows a metal tank elevated on an 8 ft
stand). Electric solar panels are used in rural schools and clinics.
Cuba does drill for oil, but its poor quality crude is bad for the
environment, but they had to use it to generate electricity. Sugar mills
are used to make fuel to generate electricity when that crop is in
season.
Although Cuban farmers are more wealthy than the average Cuban, there's
a lot of charity with people feeding their elderly neighbors, pregnant
women, giving food to schools, etc. Cubans know their neighbors a lot
better than Americans do. I guess the reason Cubans are better quality
of people is most the greedy Cubans have fled for the US. There's not
much to steal. They also seem happier, more content and more laid back
than Americans. It's the simple life in Cuba, but the people there seem
happy.
I think Fidel and his cast of commies who hold an entire impoverished
country prisoner under a failed economic system should get a few books
to read about the miracle of capitalism and freedoom. What a great
system communism is. They use mules and horses for transporation,
convert 50 year old trucks to buses, can't even afford cement and
people write books as if this were a great achievement. If you think
the kind of life they have in Cuba is so groovey, don't come here and
tell us how much happier they are than Americans. Just go live
there. After all, that is one of the basic freedoms you have here
that those living at the subsistance level in Cuba don't.
You're awfully touchy. Why does being energy independent and nearly
pesticide free bother you?- Hide quoted text -


Because in the case of the Cuban experience, which this post seems to
celebrate, it comes at the expense of living in imprisoned poverty.

What exactly did we all do before there was oil and pesticides? You
know that it's a fairly new phenomenon.

I could list plenty of other half-assed countries, with subsistance
level living, none of the conveniences of modern life, ruled by
dictators that have no money for fuel or pesticides too. Does that
make it cool? Who feeds the world with grain exports? Cuba or the
USA?

How they grow crops in Cuba with little fuel or pesticides
 

FDR fdr@kjdfgkdfkl wrote:

What exactly did we all do before there was oil and pesticides? You
know that it's a fairly new phenomenon.

They had methods of dealing with pests, although most have been long
forgotten. There have been a number of treatments for diseases which
have been taken over and pasturized or elminated all together. The
mainstream wants you to buy everything rather than figure out how to
solve it yourself for free.

How they grow crops in Cuba with little fuel or pesticides
 

johnny wrote:

On Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:30:22 -0700, (Ralph) wrote:

FDR fdr@kjdfgkdfkl wrote:

What exactly did we all do before there was oil and pesticides? You
know that it's a fairly new phenomenon.

They had methods of dealing with pests, although most have been long
forgotten. There have been a number of treatments for diseases which
have been taken over and pasturized or elminated all together. The
mainstream wants you to buy everything rather than figure out how to
solve it yourself for free.

But mostly they just lost large chunks of crops to pests. When the
pests ate the crops or the weather was really bad, they just died in
large numbers.

Heart disease and cancer kill about 1.4 million Americans each year,
diseases practically unheard of 100 years ago.

But at least they were energy-independent! As an added
bonus, I'll fix your last line for you:

The mainstream wants to buy things rather than spending all their time
trying to keep from starving to death.

Is that an either/or choice? lol Civilization and inventions like the
plow and grainmill kept people from starving, not mainstream corporate
America.

How they grow crops in Cuba with little fuel or pesticides
 

On Sep 22, 12:50*am, (Ralph) wrote:
johnny wrote:
On Sun, 21 Sep 2008 15:30:22 -0700, (Ralph) wrote:

FDR fdr@kjdfgkdfkl wrote:

What exactly did we all do before there was oil and pesticides? *You
know that it's a fairly new phenomenon.

They had methods of dealing with pests, although most have been long
forgotten. There have been a number of treatments for diseases which
have been taken over and pasturized or elminated all together. The
mainstream wants you to buy everything rather than figure out how to
solve it yourself for free.

But mostly they just lost large chunks of crops to pests. When the
pests ate the crops or the weather was really bad, they just died in
large numbers.

Heart disease and cancer kill about 1.4 million Americans each year,
diseases practically unheard of 100 years ago.

Hmmm. You think just MAYBE this has something to do with both of
those diseases largely showing up in older people and back in that
idyllic time the average lifespan was in the 40's?




But at least they were energy-independent! As an added
bonus, I'll fix your last line for you:

The mainstream wants to buy things rather than spending all their time
trying to keep from starving to death.

Is that an either/or choice? lol Civilization and inventions like the
plow and grainmill kept people from starving, not mainstream corporate
America.- Hide quoted text -


Nonsense. Who built those plows, tractors, combines, locomotives,
ships and all the rest that fed not only America, but the world and
continually raised our standard of living? Why the industries which
were the "mainstream corporate America" of their day. You want to
live at the subsistence level, do your own farming, and ride a mule
like the Cubans, that's up to you. But don't try to rewrite history
to fit your radical views.

How they grow crops in Cuba with little fuel or pesticides
 

this subject reminds me of some immegrants ive met that try to make
our local and washington gov do things here like in their old
country... baffling isnt it ? they dont want to leave,but want things
like they had it in their old country. i think they guy that posted this
thread first could do these cuban things for himself if he wanted to ,
but why try to drag the whole u.s. along with him? first thing he could
give up would be the internet and electricity , then his car. he could
set example by his actions too and not just his keyboard. lucas

----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.minibite.com/america/malone.htm

But I couldn't get anything about the apartments or real estate from it.
Actually, I was looking for it. But all was in vain. :(