Moral Economies of Food in Cuba

Abstract

The way people produce, exchange and consume food in Cuba is underwritten by cultural and political economic rules as well as economic self-interest. These “rules” are not just formed from the top down, but also from the bottom up, though, as I will explain in this paper, norms established by what I call the national moral economy often give cultural form to local practices of food provisioning. Despite extreme scarcities in the early 1990s and continuing difficulties obtaining food in the present dual economy, Cubans often frame farming and household provisioning in terms of the national moral economy. The latter is, in turn, structured by values that have developed in Cuba over time such as asceticism and hard work.