The special period in Cuba

From the Video on Cuba.
In 1991, the economic crisis began in Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
This period was very difficult in early-to-mid 1990's because Cuba was short of gasoline, diesel, and other oils. To successfully come out of this period, it was necessary to farm and produce food to survive.They stopped the use of automobiles.
After the collapse Cuba lost a large amount almost 80% of its imports and exports. It included the food and medicines imports and oil. Before the collapse of Soviet Union
the availability of oil was a lot. Cuba did not use human power or animal power in the fields, they used tractors, combines, and harvesters. This machinery ran on oil. When this period came they could not use these machines anymore because of the shortage of oil. Food, fertilizers, pesticide, and transportation was going down because all of these things are manufactured with oil. When this special period started Australian and other permaculturists arrived to Cuba and gave out aid and taught their techniques. Cuban started to use these techniques in fields and they soon grew food.
Cuba went through energy famine. They had black outs for many hours and had to wait for a bus for three hours. People lost a lot of weight because of starvation. They stated to use solar energy.
People started to grow food in the gardens. Soon meat and dairy products were not seen in the Cuban diet. They grew and had more vegetables and fruits, which they sold to the local farmers' markets and used for themselves.
It was hard to adjust to new ways instead of using cars to school,work, or anywhere else, people walked, took buses, used bikes, used animals as transportation, and used pubic transportation: cars used as taxis, in trucks canopies and steps were added. Education and medical care became free at that time. People worked and helped each other to successfully come out of this period.
We already know we will reach at this point sooner or later. We learn a lot from these Cuban how they got out of this famine. We should start now. United States is bigger then Cuba. We also know it's hard to recover that soon in US like Cuban did. But if we start now, in future we can be also successful in saving the people from starving,we need to learn the techniques of farming, and other thing to survive in these conditions. We do not have much time left for us to just wait for that time to come. The people and the government needs to work together and prepare fast.