An article from CNN observes that Cuba’s adaptive strategies during the Special Period could serve as a useful model for the West as it contemplates reductions in oil supplies. During the Special Period, Cuba fundamentally reorganized its food production and distribution switching to organic methods and urban agriculture.  This, the article notes, could serve as a blue-print to cope with problems of post-peak oil.

… as an increasing number of people believe we will soon face a major social and economic crisis as oil supplies dwindle over coming decades, many believe we have a lot to learn from the Cuban experience.

“The industrialized world can learn that its dependency on oil will eventually push it through similar experiences to that which Cuba had to face in the 1990’s, and with similar outcomes,” says Julia Wright, author of “Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in an Era of Oil Scarcity: Lessons from Cuba.”

“We can also learn that if we do not have the necessary capacities in place, our food production system will be caught short, as was Cuba.”

All over the world from New Zealand to the United Kingdom members of the Transition Town Movement, which aims to help communities prepare for the twin challenges of peak oil and climate change, hold regular screenings of the film, “The Power of Community”, an upbeat documentary that explores the Cuban experience, alongside films about our oil addiction such as “The End of Suburbia” and “A Crude Awakening.”