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LIVING FOR CHANGE The Energy Crisis and the Power of Community By Grace Lee Boggs
Michigan Citizen, Sept. 10-16, 2006 As the Mideast crisis and escalating prices for food, utilities and transportation force Americans to face the reality of diminishing energy resources, there is much that we can learn from the response of the Cuban people in the early 1990s when their plentiful supply of oil was cut off by the collapse of the Soviet Union. GDP dropped by more than one third, transportation nearly stopped, food became scarce and the average Cuban lost 20 pounds. Faced with these calamities, the Cubans began to develop a system of locally-managed-and-operated farms including urban gardens. Land that they had degraded by mechanized cultivation was regenerated and replenished by soil-enriching, organic farming techniques that required much less fossil fuels and more individual labor and animal power. Transportation was also radically altered with more reliance on bicycles and public transportation and less on private cars. The result was not only improved individual health but a greater sense of community and cooperation. In the process the Cuban people realized how cheap oil had encouraged them to develop large-scale agriculture using oil-based pesticides and fertilizers. They re-learned what indigenous peoples have never forgotten: that we have to work with rather than against the Earth, not only in order to survive from day to day but to sustain the planet. They also learned that growing our own food grows community. For example, just imagine how we could bring the neighbor back into the ‘hood if, as a normal and natural part of the curriculum from K-12 , our schools included community gardening and school greenhouses were used not only to grow food but to teach science and nutrition. My friend Jimmy Waz, who has just received a beautification award from the city of Ferndale, emphasizes this point in a recent email. “We have the technology like solar and wind. But technology is not the problem nor the answer. The challenge is personal. It is people interacting with one another in the spirit of community and self-sustainability, moving to a green revolution for the sake of the earth and all its creatures. . “We must change the way we think about fossil fuels and recognize that in a hundred years we have been depleting what it took the earth millions of years to create. Security of supply is too risky. As humans we use the most energy for food production on a global scale. Agribusiness is big business with the smallest yield of production. “As an urban gardener, I have found that the most difficult challenge is reclaiming the land. It can take several years to get the earth suitable for growing food. Reclaiming the soil is difficult because we have killed off the micro flora and micro fauna, the two elements that make soil come to life. We have polluted our soil and water by keeping lawns and gardens green with pesticides, herbicides and man-made fertilizers. “In the 1940's America had a national call for Victory Gardens and bomb shelters. In the 1950's and 1960's we had an explosion of GDP as automation swept the factories and assembly lines. In the 1970s we faced record layoffs, no gasoline, skyrocketing interest rates and a dying American economy. Americans coped by turning inward and massive materialistic individualism. “By the year 2000, Americans no longer knew the names of their next door neighbor, let alone the family down the street. The automobile will go away one day and we will look at each other and wonder how to survive.” **** The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, a new 53 minute film produced by The Community Solution, a non-profit organization in Yellow Springs, Ohio, documents Cuba’s emergency transition to local organic agriculture, renewable energy, and large-scale mass transit. It is available on DVD or VHS for $20 plus shipping and handling. To order, visit, visit www.communitysolution.org/cuba or call 937-767-2161. Email Grace Boggs Center, |