QUIT END . --- * Origin: [via Psychotronic BBS = Durham, NC = 919-286-4542]Univers (1:3641/1) @PATH: 3641/1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (220) Sat 10 Dec 94 0:41 By: David Briars To: All Re: Cuba goes organic ---------------------------------------------------------------------- @MSGID: 1:325/350.0 2ee93f86 From: NY Transfer News Collective Date: Mon, 5 Dec 1994 All the News that Doesn't Fit from Green Left Weekly #170 12/7/94 Cuban ecologist talks on green movement by Robyn Marshall BRISBANE - Cuban environmentalist Luis Sanchez told a meeting here on November 25 that the most pressing problem facing Cuba since the fall of the Eastern bloc was the production of food. Sanchez is touring Australia as a guest of the Australia-Cuba friendship Society and the Green Team, exchanging information on the green movement and in particular alternative ways of producing food using small-scale organic agriculture. A committee member of the ``Horticultural Group of Santa Fe'', he said the community is growing vegetables in the city itself, in between buildings and on the sides of streets. This was done to avoid the cost of oil for transporting food from the countryside to the city. They are growing tomatoes, cassava, sweet potato and lettuces using compost and animal manure. A Cuban video, The Greening of Cuba, showed this extraordinary process. Sanchez stressed that organic growing of food is a necessity if Cuba is to survive the 30-year blockade. The state provides seed and guarantees credit to the small city communities. He added that this is also the future of Cuban agriculture. Even if the blockade was lifted, Cuba could not return to the old ways of massive use of pesticides and chemicals and agriculture on a scale of 200 hectares. ``We have to change the way of thinking about agriculture and see agriculture as an alliance with nature not a war'', added Sanchez. On October 1, the Cuban government opened up the agricultural free market, where farmers can go to sell their excess produce to the public. Farmers first have to fill a set quota which is sold to the state to supply schools, hospitals and the official shops where people buy a set amount at a fixed price with their ration card. Once farmers have fulfilled their state obligations, they are permitted to sell in the market. The government is certain that it will stimulate production by opening the market in this way and still maintain its socialist objectives. The amount of food on the ration card guarantees some rice, beans, meat, sugar (12kg) and oil per month, about 60gm of protein per person, per day. Children aged 3-7 are guaranteed a litre of milk a day, but other Cubans don't have access to milk because of the shortage of cattle and the high cost of feed. The consumption of protein in Cuba at the moment is low but no-one is dying of hunger. Sanchez said that everyone is riding bicycles to work and is very fit. They are eating a lot more sugar for energy. However the production of their export crop, sugar, is still a problem because the sugar varieties they use need fertilisers and pesticides. -30- Six-month airmail subscriptions (22 issues) to Green Left Weekly are available for A$60 (North America) and A$75 (South America, Europe & Africa) from PO Box 394, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia -- + 212-675-9690 NY TRANSFER NEWS COLLECTIVE 212-675-9663 + + Since 1985: Information for the Rest of Us + + e-mail: nyt@blythe.org info: info@blythe.org + --- Maximus 2.02 * Origin: The Lamron Institute, Craftsbury VT (1:325/350) @PATH: 325/350 805 3615/50 3641/1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (221) Mon 12 Dec 94 8:12 By: Cissy Bowman To: JAMES ROWE Re: Re: [PANUPS] 40.000 US Fa ---------------------------------------------------------------------- @MSGID: 1:231/710 2EE56E63 In a message to CISSY BOWMAN <12-07-94 12:53> JAMES ROWE wrote: JR> Why should those who are in already in poverty go hungry, due to the JR> fact that JR> the government pays the farmers to destroy food? There is much wrong with our government programs. It seems that seldom do those who really have needs benefit, while others get rich. Farmers need to be given back the options of what and how to grow it, and consumers need to realize that the price of our so-called cheap food is full of hidden costs that we pay in higher taxes to subsidize programs. Destroying food is wasteful, and for lack of a better word, is a sin. The fact that anyone prefers to throw away food that could be given to the poor shows the cold-heartedness that people are embracing today. We ran a farmer's market stand last year and got in trouble for storing milk--that was given to us--for one day until we could take it to the mission. We were discouraged from accepting WIC coupons or food stamps. We made it part of our weekly business to donate food and to encourage others to do so. The majority of people I have tried to involve in this project over the past 5 years have refused to take on the extra time to sort usable product from garbage, or to help in any way to haul leftover stuff to the missions just a few blocks away. If people would take on just a little extra responsibility for their fellow man, we wouldn't have so much rampant hunger or poverty. JR> Another of the right wing lies is that people who are in poverty JR> chose to be JR> that way. I broke my back on the job. I was in the process of JR> improving my JR> life, working for my piece of the American Dream. Now I am being JR> forced to mo JR> JR> from my home, because my landlord doesn't feel like getting the JR> permit he need JR> to rent his property. This is the second time this year I have been JR> forced to JR> move, and neither time has it been my fault. As the daughter of a man who became chronically ill when I was 3, I am well aware of how hard-working, caring people can have things happen which forever alter their abilities to have financial security. For what it's worth, poverty taught me a lot more than comfort would have, and gave me perspectives that I treasure. I hope some good things begin to happen to you, and please don't give up or allow these experiences to ruin your faith in that things can get better. How are you doing now? Are you going to be able to recover without permanent injury? For what it's worth, it has always helped me to know that no matter how bad I have it, that there is always someone else out there who has it worse. Are you writing any letters to our legislators about what you would like to see changed in the farm bill of 1995? Share your feelings with them. Sometimes they actually listen. Even if they don't, I keep on telling them what I think. --- QuickBBS 2.80 Ovr (Zeta-1) * Origin: * The H.O.M.E. BBS - (317) 539-6579 * (1:231/710) @PATH: 231/710 2880 50 3615/50 3641/1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (222) Mon 12 Dec 94 9:33 By: South Country Community Assoc. To: Doreen Clancy Re: Tire Houses ---------------------------------------------------------------------- @PID: RA 2.02 80118 @MSGID: 1:358/1 548ab65c @REPLY: 1:353/385.0 2ee5296c @TID: GE 1.11+ Doreen, I wasn't asking about them but our organization is looking at any alternative building materials. Leave a message here about how i may get a copy of this article. We would appreciate that. --- * Origin: The TERMINAL BBS Lethbridge, AB, CAN [403]327-9731 (1:358/1) @PATH: 358/1 3615/50 3641/1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- (230) Sat 3 Dec 94 14:33 By: Si Deane To: All Re: Re: ACTION ALERT: 1995 FARM BILL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- @MSGID: 1:3641/223 0006b749 @PID GIGO+ sn 175 at psybbs vsn 0.99 pl1 From: deanes@ndlc.occ.uky.edu (Si Deane) @Subject: Re: ACTION ALERT: 1995 FARM BILL Date: 3 Dec 1994 14:33:11 GMT @Message-Id: <3bpvj7$7fv@sparc.occ.uky.edu> Allen Dick 546-2588 (dicka@cuug.ab.ca) wrote: : Colorado HIP (cohip@Cygnus.COM) wrote: : : Do other countries grow hemp for fiber? : : Canada, England, France, Hungary, Spain, China, : : Czechoslovakia, and many other countries in the European : : Community and elsewhere already grow industrial hemp as a fiber : : crop. Soon, the U.S. will be importing hemp products from these : : countries at the expense of American farmers! Just a note to let you know that the governor of Kentucky just appointed