Havana, world leader in urban agriculture

"Considered by urban biodiversity and sustainability experts to be a leading model of urban agriculture, Havana has at least 30% of all its available land under cultivation . . . Policy measures, such as creative use of spaces for urban farming, planning farmers markets, and setting policies on food-species biodiversity have helped continually expand Havana’s urban agriculture. The impacts have been huge: a city of more than 2 million people with thousands of urban farms and community gardens, Havana has been able to produce between 45% to 100% of its fresh vegetables (various annual estimates), and up to 20% of the national fresh food total . . . The benefits of urban agriculture in Havana have been extensive: higher resilience of food supply chains; boosted public health: particularly via improved nutrition due to greater access to food, and more available, less expensive, fresh vegetables, water and waste management improvements; biodiversity conservation: urban agriculture has preserved rarer plant species once part of the traditional Cuban diet but no longer found in rural agriculture . . . reduced energy use; employment creation; [and] reduction of fossil-fuel use."