The globalization of the world food supply and urbanization have dramatically transformed the character of the food system and the nature of food security worldwide. Often these changes have brought social injustice and environmental degradation. The urban agriculture (UA) program in Cuba provides insight into mitigating these negative impacts. The development of a UA program in Cuba has contributed to increasing urban food security during an era of extreme scarcity through providing a new source of nutrients, contributing to local and aggregate economies, being integrated into public policy and positively impacting the urban environment. Today, UA outputs comprise a significant amount (36%) of overall national production in fruits and vegetables. As such this program is a valuable model for other cities to increase urban food security as well as positively impact the urban environment.;Given UA's recent successes this research seeks to understand how and why UA emerged as it did in Havana and to addresses the question is UA in Havana sustainable? Also, this research evaluates the capacity for the Cuban model of UA (in Havana specifically) to provide a development framework for other countries. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).
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