morality and food, etc.

today there was much discussion of morality and what Marx may have meant by ¨species being.¨ In the end, to reduce hours of discussion to a phrase, one could say, it is not so much that individuals should be of secondary importance or absolutely subservient to the social, but that the individual will only fully develop under social conditions that encourage and nourish the development of our multiple individualities. At a very basic level, without social structures and commitments to providing food to citizens individuals will remain underdeveloped.

The question arose, around food and agriculture, ¨can Cuba offer an alternative to corporate control over the global food system, a form of control that is creating increasing food crises?¨ The answer was yes, and added was that if the world continues along the current path we will face the choice between, to quote Mezsaros, ¨socialism or barbarism...if we are lucky!¨ Cuba is committed to sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty and is operating in a world in which the food crisis is producing a ¨silent Tsunami¨in the words of the World Food Program...100 million more people are now going hungry, added to the 850 million already chronically hungry. Cuba´s program, in brief, is rooted in ecological farming, diversification into small and local farms, redistribution of land to farmers in order to operate on small scales conducive to ecological farming, state support for small farmers, democratic participation in planning and governance of farms as well as in research, paying a fair price to farmers, organic urban gardens, all operating within a very highly educated population with a high human development index, free health care and education operating more and more in a decentralized manner. Still, Cuba must import a considerable amount of food, $1.5 billion last year, including about $500 million from the US. Cuba has a long struggle to attain food self'sufficiency and sovereignty, but the struggle continues. viva socialismo! d