To learn to grow food herself, Marjory has talked to more than a thousand, maybe 2,000, gardeners worldwide. This year, she went to Cuba to learn not only their gardening techniques, but how to grow food when your country’s entire agricultural and industrial system falls apart.

Marjory relays her extensive food-growing skills on her website and others, through her “Grow Your Own Groceries” videos and with numerous personal appearances. I have an entire cabinet of horticultural books, some dating to the late 1800s, and can probably recite many chapters from memory. Still, I learned totally new talents from Marjory’s videos, which cover everything from rainwater collection to butchering rabbits and eating bugs.

Marjory, a former financial consultant, said that as the U.S. debt crisis looms scarier each day, she wanted to learn about surviving economic collapse from those who already lived through it. She figured the best way to witness Cuba’s recovery was to go there personally and talk to common gardeners and farmers.

What happened in Cuba could just as easily happen here. There are many parallels, she said.

“These are crazy and dangerous times,” Marjory said of the recent snafu with food stamp cards. With 47 million Americans on food stamps, there will likely come a time when the U.S. will not be able to provide benefits. “A lot of the riots that happen in big cities start at the welfare office when people can’t get their benefits.”

To learn more about preparing for such chaos, Marjory traveled to the island country, just 30 miles from the southern tip of Florida, with Millions Against Monsanto, a subgroup of the Organic Consumers Association, to talk with working-class Cubans about their transition to gardening.

Before the collapse 20-some years ago, Cuba relied on imported oil to grow its main export crop, sugar. Just like the United States, Cuba had been using large farm machinery and chemical fertilizers and pesticides to produce only a few types of crops.

“The big question,” Marjory asked, “was how do you feed 11 million people when your entire agricultural system no longer works?”

Economic collapse

Cuba’s collapse followed the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, which immediately halted 80 percent of Cuba’s imports and exports. Besides petroleum, other important imports such as food, machinery parts, medicine and textiles, came to a halt. Also, the bottom dropped out of the sugar market for Cuba, partly because of the introduction of high fructose corn syrup.

In time, Cubans got healthier growing their own food. But first, they suffered, even resorting to eating domestic pets and zoo animals, according to a Forbes news report. The buffalo, peacocks and rhea (a rare, flightless bird similar to an ostrich) turned up missing from the Havana zoo. Housecats also disappeared from city streets.

Soon after the collapse, Australian and other permaculturists distributed aid and taught their techniques to Cubans, who implemented them in former sugarcane fields, raised beds and urban rooftops across the nation, according to Cuba History.org.

The Cuban government mandated organic agriculture, ousting the old industrialized form of agriculture Cubans had grown accustomed to. Localization, permaculture, and innovative modes of mass transit were rapidly developed. Food consumption was cut back to one-fifth of previous levels. Although starvation was avoided, persistent hunger, something not experienced since before the Cuban Revolution, suddenly became a daily reality.

Poverty benefitted Cubans in some ways, however. Adults lost an average of 20 pounds, while cases of diabetes and high blood pressure declined as meat, milk and other dairy products became scarce. Walking and bicycling came back in style. And farmers reverted to using horses and oxen, which need only “grass and water and to be caressed.”

When imports end

Besides learning about crops and growing methods, Marjory sought Cubans’ advice for Americans preparing for economic collapse. Their answers surprised her.

“Every single one of them said something about being ready to share with your neighbors, to help out in your community and do your best to keep your spirits up,” Marjory said. “Not a single one said to go out and buy a bunch of stuff.”

Marjory said that instead of storing beans in bulk or buying guns, the Cubans did what people naturally do in times of stress – they grew gardens and shared with neighbors. Many of these community relationships were built upon generations.

After the revolution, the government gave Cubans property, but does not allow them to sell it. Unlike Americans who move on average every 5 years, Cubans generally live in one neighborhood for decades. As such, there is a very high level of connectedness with the people and very little violence, Wildcraft said.

“They are all family,” she said.

Now as old-fashioned gardeners who walk or pedal for transportation, Cubans are healthier, according to a British Medical Journal study.

Parallels with Cuba

Marjory noted several parallels between Cuba’s pre-collapse system and the current financial crisis in the United States. For instance, Cuba was highly dependent upon fuel imports. Similarly, America now imports 60 to 65 percent of its fuel.

“More than any other Latin American culture, Cuba embraced monoculture, which is what America definitely has, and that completely failed,” she said. Cuba relied mainly on sugar exports; when the sugar market dried up, Cuba had no other major cash crop. American also has lost crop diversity.

Another similarity, she said, is in U.S. reliance on large agricultural machinery and big farming enterprises. When Russian imports to Cuba halted, fuel and tractor parts were unavailable.

The common folks Marjory spoke with said the economic collapse “came as a big surprise they didn’t see coming.”

Marjory Wildcraft on ‘Beyond Off Grid’

Earlier this month, Marjory highlighted her experiences with a slide presentation on the first of a series of webinars hosted by the producers of “Beyond Off Grid,” a film documentary projected to be released in early 2014. The film, which includes more than a dozen agricultural, economic and homesteading specialists, strives to help people reduce their dependency on the modern control grid. Incidentally, Darren was filmed here in May talking about water issues and the mistake of relying on technology to pump water.

Film producer Jason Matyas, a lifelong gardener, spoke with Marjory on the 1-hour program about the municipal and private food plots she toured during her 10-day trip to Cuba.

Cubans ate a lot of rice, beans and pork before 1991, Marjory said. All of their rice was imported. Post-collapse, Cubans began eating more vegetables and fruit they grow themselves. They learned to improve their predominantly clay soil by composting and now raise produce and small livestock wherever possible.

“The Cubans did what people all over the world do when in crisis – they started growing food on windows, in backyards, and on corner lots,” Marjory said. “They use all the classic techniques from organic gardening such as composting, vermiculture, companion planting and crop rotations. Why? Because it works.”

Dependence on oil

During the program, Jason explained how an attack on Iran by the United States or Israel could almost immediately double or triple fuel prices as Iran likely would close its main shipping lane, disrupting oil transports.

“Whether that kind of scenario happens or not, the more local you can make your food supply, the better,” Jason said. “The ultimate is growing your own food.”

The next best thing, Jason said, is to trade among neighbors, followed by purchasing from a local farmer where you know the production methods.

“The question is no longer ‘if.’ The question is ‘how’ and ‘how quickly’” Jason said of U.S. economic collapse.

Marjory added that in a crisis, skills are much more valuable than goods. The items usually becoming scarce first are food, seeds, transportation, clothing and medicines. People should also consider how they will do without their addictions (such as chocolate, liquor or coffee).

“These are all patterns that happen fairly predictably,” Marjory said, urging people to begin gardening now. “Growing food is not a skill you can learn quickly or easily.”

Besides gaining self-sufficiency skills, your physical health also will be rewarded as much industrial food isn’t good for us anyway.

To see Marjory’s video interviews with Cuban farmers and gardeners and see more photos, visit her website.

© 2013 Well WaterBoy Products LLC ♦ WaterBuck Pump™ ♦ Pedal Powered PTO™

True freedom means not relying on the government or anyone else when disaster strikes, even if life never returns to normal.

Missouri filmmaker Sophek “Sean” Tounn is on the last leg of a three-year undertaking to help others think beyond preparing for a single-event disaster, and instead develop self-reliant skills to last a lifetime.

Citing Hurricane Sandy as an example, Tounn said the modern way of living is not beneficial to health or longevity. Many people have become too dependent on the government or others to help them survive a calamity.

Sean filming Darren with the WaterBuck Pump here in May

“This film is about living in such a way that we’re less dependent on outside entities,” Tounn said.

A 150-page booklet, “Henry and the Great Society,” spurred Tounn’s interest in survival, homesteading, permaculture and off-grid living about eight years ago when he came upon the fictional tale of a family’s happy life destroyed after connecting to the grid and becoming consumers – unhappy, unhealthy, debt-ridden, overworked and dependent.

Never forgetting what he had read years earlier, Tounn contacted agrarian author Michael Bunker about the possibility of a film that would include aspects of Bunker’s book, “Surviving Off Off-Grid: Decolonizing the Industrial Mind.” Bunker was skeptical at first because he is approached often by producers who are simply looking for material. When Bunker realized Tounn was sincerely interested in the lifestyle, he agreed to participate in the project.

Agrarian author Michael Bunker

Last year, Tounn began rounding up and filming specialists in a range of homesteading topics all across America for “Beyond Off-Grid,” a documentary to inspire people to become self-sustaining. The film is comprised of five major sections – family, food, history, natural building and water.

Survivalist Gardener Rick Austin

“People think of water as an unlimited resource, but they don’t realize how it is controlled by only about 10 major corporations,” Tounn said on a recent Preparedness Radio Network Secrets of a Survivalist program with host Rick Austin, author of the “Secret Garden of Survival.” Austin is featured in the documentary as an off-grid, permaculture expert, who is now in his third season of forest gardening.

To be truly free, Tounn said, people must live completely independent of the grid – including the food grid, electrical grid and water grid.

Although Austin grew up in the country with an apple orchard and has gardened most of his life, he didn’t have all the skills he needed when he embarked on an off-grid lifestyle in the Appalachian Mountains. Austin said he began researching how ancient societies survived without electricity and refrigeration, relatively modern amenities.

Rick Austin with his bees

“They did it for thousands of years,” Austin said of living without refrigeration. Austin said he is actively acquiring the skills to live off-grid comfortably and for a lifetime.

Also on the radio program with Tounn, “Beyond Off-Grid” executive producer Jason Matyas, founder of True Food Solutions, said he believes the United States is in a slow economic collapse that could accelerate at any time. Unemployment is more likely at about 25 percent overall, and 40 percent in areas such as Detroit, instead of the meager 10 percent reported officially.

“Government policies are only making it worse,” Matyas said of the unemployment crisis.

Matyas said that unless people are growing their own food and establishing networks now with their neighbors to buy locally and in bulk, they may become nameless victims in a catastrophe. It does not matter how much gold you have if you can’t grow your own food, he said.

“If you opt for convenience over the work it takes to be self-reliant, you will forever be a slave to the system,” Austin added, explaining how some have questioned why he spends time gardening and canning produce.

Cody Crone at his off-grid home

Others in the film include Cody Crone, who lives with his family off-grid in the Pacific Northwest. Crone, also known as Wranglerstar on YouTube. Crone said he has taken a holistic approach to beekeeping, forsaking the protective suit and smoke, and has never been stung.

Scott Howard of Earthen Hand

Another participant is Scott Howard, CEO of Earthen Hand Natural Building, a company specializing in building homes of rammed earth, cobb or adobe gathered near the construction site rather than hauling in expensive, prefabricated materials. Even people who have no construction experience can sculpt their own home, Howard said in an online video clip.

Permaculture expert Paul Wheaton

In another clip, permaculture expert Paul Wheaton of Permies.com, a large online forum site, said people are getting sick from high-tech solutions instead of using the low-tech remedies provided in nature.

Author Marjory Wildcraft, a former financial consultant who has traveled the world to speak to survivors of modern economic collapse, will explain, among other things, how to build self-reliant communities and embrace the lifestyle.

“Many people turn towards prepping and self-reliance out of concern for possible collapse,” Wildcraft said. “But really, this is a lifestyle that is ultimately the wisest choice for humanity. I’ve found greater and greater satisfaction and joy the more I let go of dependencies on the system.”

Bunker, who has authored several survival-related books, said most “preppers” store a supply of food and buy a generator with the mindset of “making it through to the end” of a calamity. Their idea is that life will eventually return to normal, he said.

That line of thinking is consumer-based rather than production-based, Bunker said, explaining the huge difference between prepping for an event and practicing a lifestyle of production.

When Darren was filmed here in May, he related how many people also overlook the need to have a reliable way to get fresh water without any source of electricity.

“People will spend thousands of dollars on a micro-grid system to run their whole house,” Darren said, “but will spend as little as possible for a manual water pump. Yet, water is critically more important than convenience and gadgets.”

The film is set to be released at the end of the year or early 2014 depending on funding. Presenting it to the public is a mission fulfilled for Tounn.

“I just want people to know, the old-path way might be hard at first, but look toward the future — the future of your children, your community, your country,” Tounn said. “A stronger bond with family and more a peaceful way of life are reasons enough to explore this way of living.”

To learn more about the film, see video segments or to donate to the project, visit www.beyondoffgrid.com. To see more photos, visit our earlier blog. Also, you can read my first blog on Mother Earth News about this exciting project. Donate $30 or more to help complete the film on time, and you’ll get a copy of the DVD in the mail.

© 2013 Well WaterBoy Products LLC ♦ WaterBuck Pump™ ♦ Pedal Powered PTO™