The humble potato has become the symbol of a new revolution sweeping Cuba.
The vegetable has been eliminated from the thick brown ration books that Cuban nationals relied on for nearly 50 years to purchase government-subsidized groceries, part of the socialist country's attempt to ensure equal access to such staples as rice, beans and cooking oil.
If this is the beginning of the end for Cuban ration books -- and many who have been charting the series of changes instituted by new President Raul Castro believe it is -- the implications for the future of the struggling country's economy are huge.
"It's an attempt to start a new model you might call market socialism," said John Kirk, a professor who specializes in Cuban studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
"It's a survival strategy to a certain extent. Raul Castro is saying ... the model that we've used needs to be radically changed. The issue of ration books is one breadcrumb along the path."
Since he officially assumed the country's helm from his ailing brother Fidel in February 2008, Castro has been telegraphing reforms to Cuba's vast array of subsidization programs, which cover everything from food to medical care and electricity.
The movement to eliminate unnecessary financial backstopping intensified in the wake of the global economic implosion, which delivered swift blows to Cuba's main sources of income -- tourism and nickel exports -- and pushed the country into one of its worst economic crises since 1959, when the revolution brought Fidel Castro to power.
Upholding the island nation's expensive food subsidization program, which has long been a critical building block of their system, is causing acute strain. The inefficient use of Cuba's fertile farmland (half the country's arable land is unused) has forced the country to import between 60 percent and 80 percent of the food needed to nourish its 11.2 million people. The national grocery tab hit $2.4-billion last year -- the same amount generated each year by its tourism industry.
"This is far too much," said Beat Schmid, Oxfam's country director in Cuba. "It's a huge economical problem because food prices are still very high."
About two-thirds of every Cuban's daily diet is subsidized by the government via ration coupons (which cover very little meat and few vegetables) and free lunches provided at schools and in many government cafeterias. Cubans are expected to draw on their meager income, which averages about $20 per person each month, to supplement the rest of their needs.
Although the official demise of rationing has not been confirmed, the state-owned newspaper Granma recently began urging readers to prepare for life without the rationing system. Many view it as a right even though quotas have grown stingier in recent years.
"There's not a whole lot in it in terms of chicken, meat, eggs, but it's an important start to the grocery shopping for the month," said Phil Peters, a Cuba expert at the Lexington Institute, a Washington-based think tank. "If it were to disappear, it would be a big problem for most households in Cuba."
There was no official announcement when the government removed potatoes and chickpeas, two nonessential dietary items, from the ration list. Cubans only learned of the change when they showed up to collect food from their neighborhood bodegas - suggesting it was an attempt to test consumer reactions before more drastic changes are made.
Already many government workers have had to grapple with the removal of free lunches in their workplace cafeterias. Instead of a hot meal, many are now given an extra 15 Cuban pesos a day.
"This doubles their income, so some people think that's great," said Oxfam's Schmid. "Other people feel it's a loss. They liked to have a warm plate of food at noon," he said, adding that if people are fairly compensated for changes to the rationing system, and if the changes are rolled out slowly enough, they will ultimately be accepted.
"It's a step in the right direction economically, giving people more capacity to choose, more liberty to do what they want with their money," he said.
The small extension of financial freedom should not be seen as a shift towards capitalism, though.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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