How sanctions have impacted Cubans' plates.
Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders recently made comments on Cuba that have stirred some criticism and controversy. Although Sanders condemned authoritarianism, he said that “it's unfair to simply say everything is bad” with respect to Cuba, as Sanders pointed to Fidel Castro’s massive literacy program put in place just after the 1959 socialist revolution. Between this literacy campaign and free education at all levels, Cuba continues to have a 99% literacy rate. However, what Sanders did not mention is that while Cuba has historically accomplished these things in spite of the U.S. Embargo, the impact of U.S. sanctions can be felt through other metrics and is only getting worse.
Trump’s tightening of U.S. sanctions has had a devastating effect on the already precarious Cuban food system.
Long before these comments Cubans on the island had been keeping a close eye on the 2020 US Presidential election; this year’s election is particularly important because of the recent crushing sanctions against Cuba that the Trump administration has put in place. Trump’s sanctions have happened in tandem with many political changes on the island. In 2019 Cubans approved a new Constitution that formally recognizes the operation of the market and legalizes forms of private property and business. These shifts continue to be within the single-party system and formalize an ongoing process of economic liberalization toward a mixed economy, which has been termed “market socialism.” Cuba’s new President Miguel Diaz-Canel assumed office on Oct 10, 2019, having served as the President of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers since 18 April 2018. Just before Diaz-Canel began, Trump activated a rarely used part of the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which allows U.S. citizens to file claims against Cuba’s trading and investment partners for properties nationalized following the revolution 60 years ago. This is an effort to tighten the U.S. Embargo by forcing other countries to stop trading and investing in Cuba.
Trump’s tightening of U.S. sanctions has had a devastating effect on the already precarious Cuban food system. I have written about this extensively in my new book, Food in Cuba: The Pursuit of a Decent Meal», which is based on research I conducted in Santiago de Cuba between 2008 and 2019. Cuba imports 60 to 80% of food consumed on the island. Not only are direct food imports an issue, but reductions in imported agriculture inputs, including fuel to operate farm machinery also have severe impacts on domestic food production. For instance, in March 2019, Cuba produced 900,000 fewer eggs than the 5.7 million needed daily to satisfy national demand. As a measure to ensure basic food access, in May 2019 the government tightened the food rations, food items that had recently been more abundantly available in non-subsidized markets were now only available through the food ration. This included chicken, eggs, rice, beans, soap and other basic products that are only available in limited quantities. At hard currency stores there is also a limit on powdered milk to four packets per person, sausages to four packs per person and peas to five packets per person. Adjacent to actual food shortages, in early January 2020 the Cuban government announced that tanks of petroleum gas, the main cooking source for most Cubans, would be scarce. This scarcity is directly tied to a contract that was cancelled due to Trump’s sanctions.
The book details the everyday lives of people living in Cuba today, and reveals the ways in which the study of food is not only about what kind of foods Cubans eat, what they think of as their traditional cuisine, but also about how Cuba’s changing political economy, and its relationship to the global food system, impact people's everyday lives. Food shortages in Cuba today often bring back traumatic memories of severe food scarcities during the 1990s, when after the collapse of the Soviet Union, then Cuba’s major trade partner, Cuba entered into a period of economic devastation known as the Special Period in Time of Peace.
While sweeping political economic changes have taken place since the Special Period and over the course of this research, households in Santiago de Cuba still struggle to access basic ingredients, live with sporadic food shortages and economic hardship. My visit in July 2019 indicates that food access issues may be worsening. During this research trip I observed families both shift their food acquisition strategies by dedicating more time, energy, and additional people from the household to spend time waiting in long lines at different stores and markets as well as searching for food on the black market, and reduce their household food consumption by limiting the food intake of everyone in the family or just certain adults.
For example, during the summer of 2019 when I spoke with Maria Julia, whom I have known since 2008 and who has been a long-time participant in my research, she told me that she had basically given up on cooking real meals. Maria Julia, who works full-time and cares for her teenage son, simply felt that she no longer had the time to run around looking for ingredients to put together “real meals.” She explained, “If I have in my mind that I want to make arroz con pollo, I have to make sure I have enough rice, see where I can get some chicken—and God knows we haven’t seen chicken around here for months—and then the onion, and the peppers, the spices, the garlic, the tomato sauce. Well you can never find it all, and I just gave up on trying. So now I make white rice and inventos (inventions). If chicken appears, we eat it, if not I fry up an egg and that’s it.” To give some context, since I have known her Maria Julia has been the epitome of the perfect Cuban homemaker, always ensuring that her family had three well rounded meals a day. This change toward cooking “whatever appeared” and giving up on the “proper meal” was a radical shift for Maria Julia.
In Food in Cuba: The Pursuit of a Decent Meal, I draw on research over the past decade to detail the tactics and strategies that Cubans employ to overcome scarcities and attempt to maintain a decent quality of life. As conditions worsen due to geopolitical and economic shifts with Trump’s policies, Cubans continue to struggle to acquire the basic things necessary to be able to eat well. The struggle to eat well is about more than preventing hunger and malnutrition; it is also about maintaining the daily practices that symbolize living a good life.
In the Feb 25, 2020 debate Sanders implored us to be honest about U.S. foreign policy, what I have detailed here and elaborate on in the book show the ways that U.S. sanctions have severely hindered the wellbeing of the people of Cuba. Yet, in spite of these sanctions Cuba still maintains stellar social indicators.
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