How One Cuban Farm Rebuilt Its Future | Finca del Medio

The soils were degraded. The house was crumbling. There was no electricity. But one Cuban family chose to start over anyway—transforming their farm into a model of agroecology, renewable energy and resilience.

Final part of our short series on Cuban agroecology, leading up to the premiere of Our Agroecology, Our Future. Full documentary premieres today on YouTube.

TRANSCRIPT

Finca del Medio is a family farm. It’s eleven of us and we all love and connect with this way of life.

We came here during a very complex moment. 

The family house was very old. The soils were degraded. We had no electricity. But we gave up everything and came here full of illusions and dreams.

My only experience was what I saw my dad and my family do in the “other” agriculture.

The soils were eroded due to so much use of heavy machinery and chemicals.

The old practices had not only caused this degradation but were making us slaves of a model that had no future.

That’s why we started to try to do things in a different way. And little by little, the farm transformed.

Agroecology can be seen in practically everything we do. In the diversification of the landscape, in the quality of production, in the approach we, as a family, have towards our community.

That’s why the concept of agroecology is much bigger than it seems.

Now we are producing more than 20 kWh from renewable energy sources on the farm, between windmills, hydraulic rams, a biodigester, solar panels.

Being able to use what is normally considered waste, from the sources of your own farm, and turn it into energy, has been incredibly enriching.

We have created a sustainable, fun and creative way of life. 

Many things have gone wrong for us. Having very few resources, which hurts even more. But we can now say that we know what to do.

Cuba has been a reference point, an agroecological lighthouse, because during the Special Period, with the food, energy, and economic crisis we experienced that time, agroecology was a resilient response that supplied food for the country through family agriculture. 

We have studies which show that small farms in agroecological transition are capable of feeding eight people in calories and protein per hectare per year. This means that with one hundred thousand farms in Cuba—which is not a lot —we could supply more than half of the population.

The approach can;t be based on input substitution, it has to focus on technological change for it to be palpable.

Agroecology is often portrayed, even by agroecologists, as an alternative. For us, it is THE alternative.