International Agroecology Conference Underway in Cuba

Havana, Nov 17 (ACN) — With an urgent call to transform global food systems, the Ninth International Meeting on Agroecology, Sustainable Agriculture and Cooperativism opened Monday at the Niceto Perez Comprehensive Center, under the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP) in the Artemisa municipality of Güira de Melena.

Under the slogan “For Life and Food Sovereignty,” the event — which includes participants from 15 countries — addresses the complex challenges facing the Cuban agriculture sector, impacted by the US economic, commercial, and financial blockade of the island nation.

The gathering provides a space for resistance and collective construction of alternatives in the face of an unjust international economic order.

Osbel Pérez Gerardo, member of the National Bureau of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), warned at the opening that humanity faces an imminent risk of self-destruction due to the killing of its natural life-support systems, worsened by unequal exchange, protectionism, and the stranglehold of external debt.

Recalling the historic leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro Ruz, he emphasized the need for a fairer international economic order with better distribution of wealth and technology, payment of the ecological debt, and a more rational human existence, so that hunger disappears and not humankind.

Pérez Gerardo highlighted that the forum reveals how agroecology is a fundamental pillar for food sovereignty and Cuba’s resistance in the face of the “criminal” U.S. blockade, described as the main obstacle to the country’s development.

Braulio Machín Sosa, founder of the Farmer-to-Farmer Agroecological Movement, created in 2000, told the Cuban News Agency that agroecology in Cuba is a culture, a way of life, and a spiritual expression of farmers.

The Farmer-to-Farmer movement, he explained, is a participatory and horizontal methodology, which has enabled the substitution of agricultural inputs, soil conservation, and the production of healthy foods over the past 25 years.

Despite adversities, speakers emphasized the unity of the Cuban people, their ability to resist, and their creativity to find alternatives through their own efforts — not only to advance agroecology but also in various areas of contemporary society.

The program of the meeting includes presentations, workshops in five commissions, and field visits to agroecological farms in the provinces of Artemisa, Mayabeque, and Havana, with the goal of strengthening bonds of solidarity among peoples and spreading this production model, which is not just an urgent solution but a strategic vision to save the world.

With this forum, ANAP and the Cuban peasantry reaffirm their commitment to an agricultural model that protects Mother Earth, focuses on producing healthy food for the people, and represents an act of sovereignty and resistance.