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I haven't had much time to blog lately, but I did follow up on that 70% figure with the author of the LA Times article. As a source, she cited: "Centro de Estudios de la Economia in Havana, a report about 18 months ago, and th USiCuba Trade and Economic. Council." When I asked for more detail, she said it was something she read in Cuba in 2006. So that's pretty much a vaporware statistic.
As I say in the sidebar to my blog, if you doubt it, google it.
Actually, I find that to be a convenient fig leaf to cover your shoddy research practices. I think it would be a much better idea if you just cited your sources in the first place. Particularly since I've already caught you making up "facts" once already.
As of 2001-2003, the Cuban dietary percentages and import/consumption ratios were as follows (according to the FAO(pdf)):
Cereals: 53% of dietary intake, imports/consumption=104%
Vegetable oils: 6% of dietary intake, imports/consumption=99%
Meat: 6% of dietary intake, imports/consumption=46%
Milk: 6% of dietary intake, imports/consumption=46%
Cuba is highly self-sufficient in sugar and roots/tubers, which (combined) provide 27% of dietary intake. (If you want to call sugar "nutrition"...)
Thanks for following up the dodgy journalist.
I told you, I don't make things up, but like anyone I get bad sources from time to time - and when I find out I'm wrong, I say so publicly. Will you be retracting your "Cuba imports 70% its food" article, or publishing a correction? I doubt it. So play nice :)
The pdf you helpfully link us to lists selected foodstuffs, specifically:- rice, wheat, maize, sorghum, potatoes, cassava, sugar, soybean oil, palm oil, milk, animal fats, eggs, pig meat, poultry, bovine meat, and sheep and goats meat. Are we to presume that Cubans consume no fruits and vegetables?
Another FAO pdf tells us that as of Nov 2006, rice and wheat made up 35% of their diet; about 90% of this is imported, and 10% produced domestically. This leaves 70% of their nutrition to account for.
It also tells us that they produced 1,816,000t of fresh vegetables, or about 160kg per Cuban annually. This is about what the average Australian consumes, by coincidence. They also produce about 70kg tomatoes per Cuban. The exports list no vegetables or tomatoes, so it seems fair to assume they're eating them all.
I'd be interested to see more comprehensive statistics on their production and consumption. Until then, I think it fair to say - on the basis of the figures we've seen so far - that Cuba supplies about half its nutrition domestically.
Incidentally, this was the article I originally read which said that the rice in Cuba had come from Vietnam. I half-remembered it, then in casual comments on JD's blog just remembered "east Asia" and called it "China."
However, I had no actual numbers - but hey, it was a comment on a blog post, not a proper article. Nonetheless, I was wrong.
I didn't, however, "mak[e] up "facts"." I just got an inaccurate source (most of Cuba's rice is coming from the US), half-remembered it, and screwed it up.
I'm hardly unique in that :)
It's not a biggie, Kiashu, and I won't mention it again. I like your writing a lot, and I'm just giving you a friendly jolt to make sure you diligently cite your sources. :-)