Food crisis: urban emergency: community resilience in Cuba and New Orleans / Zachary Lamb -- Urban farming in Cuba -- Networks and garden typologies -- Gardens of pleasure and survival / Fritz Haeg -- Evolving design roles / Jorge Pena Diaz -- Design and planning -- The productive city / Jonathan Tate.
Summary:
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Cuba found itself solely responsible for feeding a nation that had grown dependent on imports and trade subsidies. With fuel, fertilizers, and pesticides disappearing overnight, citizens began growing their own organic produce anywhere they could find space, on rooftops, balconies, vacant lots, and even school playgrounds. By 1998 there were more than 8,000 urban farms in Havana producing nearly half of the country's vegetables. What began as a grassroots initiative had, in less than a decade, grown into the largest sustainable agriculture initiative ever undertaken, making Cuba the world leader in urban farming. Featuring a wealth of rarely seen material and intimate portraits of the environment, this text details the innovative design strategies and explores the social, political, and environmental factors that helped shape this pioneering urban farming program.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.