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Cuban Coffee, Sugar and the Special Period

Historical period

SUGAR defined Cuba for two centuries — the largest producer in the world at points, with an enslaved workforce and then a monoculture that shaped every other crop. COFFEE arrived in quantity with the French-Haitian refugees of the 1790s, and the archaeological landscape of the first coffee plantations in south-eastern Cuba is a UNESCO World Heritage site. ⚠ THE SPECIAL PERIOD after the Soviet collapse in 1991 is a documented food-system catastrophe: fuel and fertiliser vanished, the average adult lost a substantial amount of weight, an optic neuropathy epidemic was attributed to nutritional deficiency, and the state promoted urban ORGANOPÓNICO agriculture and soy substitutes out of necessity. Rationing via the libreta, and the picadillo of uncertain content, belong to this record. ⚠ STATED PLAINLY, sourced to the epidemiological and agronomic literature.

Atlas — where and when

Where in the world

Communities and languages

Languages: Spanish

What is recorded

  • The Special Period following the Soviet collapse in 1991 produced a documented nutritional crisis in Cuba, including substantial average adult weight loss and an epidemic of optic neuropathy attributed to nutritional deficiency. State promotion of urban organopónico agriculture and soy substitution is documented as a response. The archaeological landscape of the first coffee plantations in south-eastern Cuba, established by French-Haitian refugees, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. documented
  • French-Haitian planters fleeing the revolution establish coffee in south-eastern Cuba, and with it Haitian-descended communities in the Oriente. documented
  • The transatlantic slave trade to Cuba continues illegally, later than most of the Caribbean, which is why Yoruba, Kongo and Calabar traditions survived there with unusual specificity. documented
  • The Special Period: substantial average adult weight loss, an optic neuropathy epidemic attributed to nutritional deficiency, and the turn to urban organopónico agriculture. documented

Related foodways

Recorded as relating to this foodway

  • related to Haitian Food History documented

    French-Haitian planters fleeing the revolution took coffee cultivation and Haitian-descended communities to eastern Cuba in the 1790s.

Recipes

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