"With 80% of the food grown organically in or around metro areas by regional co-ops, using animals as workforce, mules and oxen, will make Cuba a virtual paradise compared to the collapse of the western agriculture after peak oil."

~ Michael C. Ruppert, From the Wilderness ~

With global attention fixed on the looming oil crises and environmental issues, we as individuals are faced with finding new ways to deal with our ever-changing world.

Cuba has adapted for the better in the wake of the strangling US-Cuba embargo. Cut off from trade by the United States, in 1993 Cuba lost its critical oil imports from the Soviet Union almost overnight. The country had to learn to do without it, and today has lessons for the rest of the world about how it can be done.

On Saturday, March 5th, Path to Freedom will be hosting a Film Screening of ‘The Greening of Cuba’ and Open Discussion Seminar with guest speaker, Rachel Bruhnke on Cuba's Green Revolution. Learn how this small country defied the odds and what lessons could be taken from their experience with an agrarian, low energy, cooperative lifestyle.

‘The Greening of Cuba’ video profiles Cuban farmers and scientists working to reinvent a sustainable agriculture, based on ecological principles and local knowledge rather than imported agricultural inputs. In their quest for self sufficiency, Cubans combine time-tested traditional methods with cutting edge bio-technology.

GUEST SPEAKER'S BACKGROUND: Rachel Bruhnke received a Masters of Science Degree in 2001 in Environmental Systems Engineering for her research on renewable energy policy in Cuba. Subsequently, she directed the Eco Cuba Exchange program at the NGO Global Exchange (www.globalexchange.org) , based in San Francisco, California.

The program linked US and Cuba professionals in the areas of sustainable management of natural resources and environmental protection. Ms. Bruhnke was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Honduras for 3 years, has studied and worked in Peru, Ecuador and Costa Rica, and has traveled extensively through Latin America. She also holds a bilingual elementary teaching credential and is the mother of a Cuban American daughter. Ms. Bruhnke is currently working toward a PhD from the University of Havana, Cuba, researching the potential for US-Cuba trade in the environmental marketplace.



For more information or to reserve a space at this event, contact:

Path to Freedom

631 Cypress Avenue

Pasadena, CA

Email: dervaes@pathtofreedom.com

Phone: 626-795-8400

or visit: http://www.pathtofreedom.com/outreach/events/greeningofcuba.htm