Canada-Cuba Farmer to Farmer Project

WHAT'S INCLUDED:

• Fourteen nights accommodation, seven of which are in 5 star hotels (three nights at all-inclusive Melia Varadero, one night at Melia Santiago, three nights at Havana's Hotel Nacional).
 
• All meals (full breakfasts, lunches and dinners) with the exception of 2 lunches/2 dinners in Havana (and our three days at the Melia Varadero are all-inclusive!).
 

• Orientation sessions in Varadero (videos on Cuba's agriculture sector, CBC Country Canada video on Canada Cuba Farmer to Farmer Project), Eight day farm tour of Cuba (large co-ops, processing enterprises; a good mix of farm visits with some free time for sight-seeing). 
  
 
• All ground (air conditioned coach) and air transportation while in Cuba (leaving from Varadero in the province of Matanzas, we will drive in a south-westerly direction towards the Caribbean seaport of Santiago de Cuba; spending time along the way in the provinces Havana, Ciego de Avila, Camaguay and Granma. After a night in Santiago de Cuba we fly to Havana for three days of sight seeing before returning to Canada.
 

• Full translation/bilingual tour guide.
 
• Canadian Agrologist and Canada-Cuba Project Leader Wendy R. Holm, P.Ag. will accompany all farmer tours. Holm was named British Columbia Agrologist of the Year 2000 and awarded the Queen's Golden Jubliee Medal (2002) for her leadership of the Canada Cuba Farmer to Farmer Project.  In May 2008 Holm was named one of 9 Distinguished Alumni of the UBC Faculty of Agriculture since the university was founded.  In April 2009 Wendy was the BC/Alberta recipient of Farm Credit Canada's Rosemary Davis Award for passion and commitment to agriculture.
  

• AIRFARE - Priced separately as cost varies depending on departure city.  Air Transat has direct flights from Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary and all have direct flights from Toronto.  We are happy to arrange all your travel bookings (see below) or alternatively you may choose to book direct (and, for example use your air points with Air Canada).  
  
 
• Also excluded are airport departure taxes, optional travel insurance, beverages (including bottled water) and gratuities.

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LAND COSTS:  

2012 AIR COSTS:

10 EXCELLENT REASONS TO GO TO CUBA AS PART OF A CANADA-CUBA FARMER TO FARMER DELEGATION

#10 YOU CAN WRITE IT OFF AS A BUSINESS EXPENSE.

If you make your living from farming, you'll have little difficulty justifying this as a business expense!  The goal of the Project is to facilitate cooperation between farm communities. Canada has expertise in processing, packaging, labeling, marketing and sales. Cuba's farmers are world leaders in commercial organic cropping systems, have highly organized cooperatives, good farm extension, unparalleled soil and water resources and a tropical climate. We have a lot to learn from them. They have a lot to learn from us. Together, we're more competitive. Farmer's who travel to Cuba as part of this project are exposed to this potential "from the ground up".

 

 #9. YOU'LL BE IN GOOD HANDS.

With thirteen successful years, thirty-nine delegations and 662 Delegates behind us, we are professionals highly experienced in organizing and delivering unique Canadian farmer tours of Cuba. Our Cuban partner ANAP (the national farmer organization to which all Cuban farmers belong) works with us to deliver a high-quality, memorable and safe travel experience completely free of stress and filled with delightful memories of the real Cuba and her people. We promise.   All farmer tours fully escorted by Wendy R. Holm, P.Ag.

 #8. YOU'LL BE TRAVELING WITH A "GREAT BUNCH" --- OTHER FARMERS:

Dairy farmers, crop farmers, ranchers, orchardists, poultry farmers, greenhouse growers, bee keepers and the like - a relaxing and fun group to travel with.  So far, approximately two percent of our Delegates have been organic farmers, most are conventional farmers.  

 #7. YOU'LL SEE FIRST HAND INNOVATIVE PRACTICES THAT MAKE CUBAN FARMERS WORLD LEADERS IN SUSTAINABILITY.

In 1999, Cuba won the prestigious Right Livelihood Award of the Swedish Parliament for sustainable agricultural practices. This was due in no small measure to strong scientific capacity and good agricultural extension,. We will visit large scale worm composting facilities, CREE's (Centres for the Reproduction of Entomopathogens and Entomofagos) and plant protection laboratories to see how Cuba became an innovative world leader in the use of biopesticides and biofertilizers.

 

 #6. YOU'LL VISIT OUR AWARD-WINNING DAIRY PROJECT AND SEE THE RESULTS OF CANADIAN COOPERATION.

This project began with a small CIDA pilot grant in December 2004.  Six years later, through the cooperative efforts of farmers in Canada and Cuba, we have tripled milk production and created a self sufficient rural milk production model that is attracting big attention in this tiny little country…  And you will get to see how we did it!

 

 #5. YOU'LL EXPERIENCE A CULTURE WHERE FARMERS ARE RESPECTED.

A majorly unique - dare we say empowering - experience for Canadian farmers. We will have the opportunity to meet with Cuban farmers to discuss how they run their cooperatives, how production decisions are made, how state contracts are negotiated and profits are shared, how crop insurance works, how they get access to farmers' markets and how ANAP (Cuba's national farmers' organization) speaks with one voice in the interests of the farm community.

 #4. YOU'LL BE "IN ON THE GROUND FLOOR" IN TERMS OF FUTURE PROJECT INITIATIVES.

The experience of Cuban agriculture - that large scale commercial organic production IS possible - is a lesson for the world. By partnering with Cuba, Canada can piggy-back on this expertise.  Farmers who participate in these Delegations will receive regular updates on the Project and are "in on the ground floor" in terms of any future initiatives.

The Advisory Board struck at the outset to guide this work included: Moura Quayle, former Dean of the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of British Columbia; Evelyn Pinkerton, Professor, School of Resource & Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University; Ian MacPherson, Director, BC Institute for Co-operative Studies, University of Victoria; Susan Babbitt, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Queens University; and Dr. Warren Bell, President, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.  In 2004, Vancouver-based Sustainable Cities (www.icsc.ca) joined us as an NGO Partner in approaching CIDA for funding for our first cooperative, capacity building project Enhancing Sustainable Dairy Production Capacity in Cuba. The Project commenced in December 2004.  In its fifth year, it has won international recognition for excellence in cooperation.  We will visit it on the tour.

 

 #3. YOU'LL ENJOY SOME OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BEACHES AND HOTELS IN THE WORLD.

We begin with 3 nights at the beautiful 5 Star Hotel Melia Varadero and conclude with 1 night in the Melia Santiago de Cuba followed by 3 nights at Havana's fabulous 5 Star Hotel Nacional.

 

 #2. YOU'LL SEE "THE REAL CUBA" THAT TOURISTS NEVER EXPERIENCE.

Cuba is a safe and gentle destination with a unique culture and warm and friendly people. During your 8 day tour of Cuba's farming communities, we leave the tourist zones and travel into the countryside, visiting the provinces of Ciego de Avila, Camaguay, Bayamo and Santiago de Cuba. There is ample time set aside for sightseeing, sampling Cuban culture and even horseback riding on the beach at pristine Cayo Coco if you're so inclined.

 #1. YOU'LL HAVE THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME. (AND ISN'T THAT ABOUT TIME?)

It's perhaps best expressed in the words of other farmers: "wonderfully unique... ...an opportunity to see places other tourists have never been... Thanks for the trip of a lifetime..."

WE ARE ACCEPTING BOOKINGS NOW FOR THE WINTER 2012 SEASON.

Please note: 

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PURPOSE   The purpose of the Canada Cuba Farmer to Farmer Project is to foster cooperative, farmer-led capacity building.

"...Off farm doesn't have to mean out of sector. And adding value doesn't have to mean building a potato chip mill at the end of the drive way. Or opening a "farm bed and breakfast". What we need is to add market value to the stewardship activities our farmers are already leaders at undertaking. In concert with farmers in other countries with whom we have a strategic advantage. Cooperatively capturing back margins that have been soaked up by market concentration in the pre and post-farm gate sectors. Margins that are legitimately due the sustainable providers of the food itself. (It's called leveling the playing field.)..."

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