Rural Vermont’s mission makes clear that our work is grounded in assuring the essential needs and health of our communities locally - and human and non-human communities around the world. Connecting the people we work with, and the issues they face, with global communities and allied organizations and the issues they face is essential to realizing food sovereignty, and is a growing part of our work at Rural Vermont. Producers and communities all over the world are affected by many of the same global policies and dynamics which marginalize and disempower producers in Vermont. Two of the primary organizations who work globally which we are members of are the National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) and La Via Campesina (we are members through NFFC, and pursuing individual membership).
In November, Rural Vermont staffers Mollie and Graham and board member Nour traveled to Cuba along with a number of Rural VT members as delegates to the 8th annual International Agroecology Encounter, hosted by the National Small Farmers' Association of Cuba (ANAP), and co-coordinated by La Via Campesina North America, the Caribbean Agroecology Institute, and the Cuba / US Agroecology Network. We traveled to many farms and farming cooperatives, saw presentations from many farmers and researchers, and grew relationships with small farmers, agroecological organizations, and other delegates from all over the world.
Cuba is a global beacon for cooperativism and agroecology and its many decades of social, economic, and land reforms are also important and unique aspects of Cuba to understand. Agricultural producers are centered in the Cuban economy and politics - it is a constant refrain that “we want farmers to be able to farm”, meaning that cooperatives and the state substantially support distribution, processing, markets, and other needs connecting food production to its consumption.
However, Cuba is sadly in an economic crisis - largely due to the United States’ reimposed and strengthened sanctions (often referred to in Cuba as the “blockade”), sanctions which have been condemned yearly by a nearly universal vote at the United Nations (aside from the US and Israel) for 30 years. This blockade - like others like it around the world - intimately and pervasively affects the abilities of everyday people to live sovereign, healthy lives.
In the coming months, look for more community outreach from Rural Vermont around our time in Cuba and getting involved in exchange and solidarity with Cuban farmers. And look for more information on the formation of a VT Agroecology School - which will continue this thread of internationalism, farmer to farmer based education, and cooperativism.
For some quick introductions to Cuba and Cuban agroecology - see this short film from Belly of the Beast (which includes Rural VT member farmer Tom Gilbert).
