Tierralismo
Icarus Films • 49m
Directed by Alejandro Ramirez Anderson • Documentary • 2013 • 49 minutes
On the outskirts of Havana, sandwiched between highways and public housing, a revolution is taking place. Here, in the district of Alamar, a 26-acre farming co-op provides employment for dozens of workers, while producing vegetables and medicinal plants for the local community and beyond.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc in the early 1990s, Cuba was no longer able to access machinery and agricultural chemicals from its former Communist allies. In this difficult environment, the government relaxed economic rules and allowed the formation of cooperatives—like the Organoponico Vivero Alamar.
What began as necessity—farming without pesticides and chemical fertilizers—has become a source of pride for co-op members. They fertilize with compost and cow manure, raise their own insects for biological pest control, and have even created a fully biodegradable alternative to the plastic bag for use with seedlings.
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