Cuba has, for good reason, often been studied in a bid to pre-learn the lessons we need to understand if we’re to successfully transition into a post-peak oil world. 

Just as we’re rapidly depleting our oil supplies, we’re also rapidly depleting our soil health. Feeding ourselves off dead soils with little to no access to quick-fix fertilisers is not an easy ask — especially since we’ll need many, many more farmers and few of us know a thing about it any more. The sooner we get started, the easier and thus more peaceful the inevitable transition will be. It will mean a return to more manual labour; we’ll use horses for more than just show-jumping; it will mean most of us will need to learn to provide for much of our own needs as possible — but it will also mean improved physical and mental health* and the strengthening of the community ties that bind people into harmonious interdependent and mutually symbiotic relationships.