Cuba lost large parts of its oil and food supply when its chief supporter, the Soviet Union, collapsed in 1991.
It was disastrous for the whole Cuban economy, particularly agriculture.
The small communist Caribbean country had to drastically reorganize its food system. Hand labour and oxen replaced machinery, huge gardens were created in cities and researchers found ways to replace pesticides and fertilizers with organic methods.
The average per capita calorie intake fell from 2,900 a day in 1989 to 1,800 calories in 1995, but the transition worked well enough to avoid starvation.
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Today, the gardens and organic practices are still used, although Cuba now gets its oil from friendly Venezuela.
Peak oil guru Richard Heinberg, in an address to Britain’s Soil Association early this year, said 15 to 25 percent of Cubans became involved in food production.
If that same figure holds true in other countries, the future may need a lot more farmers, Heinberg said.
“If the 20th century was about moving people off the farms and into cities, and depending more and more on limited but powerful fossil fuels to replace human labour in food production and to move food ever further distances, the 21st century is going to be just the opposite,” he said.
“It’s going to be about the relocalization of food production, declining oil and gas availability, declining availability of chemical fertilizer and the increasing need for human labour inputs and the need for more food producers as a percentage of the population.
“It’s going to be an enormous challenge, but the longer we wait, the greater that challenge will be.”
