When the Sugar Runs Out: Transitioning Agricultural Systems and Their Effect on Dietary Diversity in Yaguajay, Central Cuba

Abstract

The past years have shown the widespread vulnerability of agro-food systems and rural diets to external perturbations such as wars, climate events, and pandemics. Experiencing numerous obstacles, Cuba constitutes an example of success in the transition to agroecological sustainability models. This article characterizes how processes of agricultural change, local development, and industrial degrowth have impacted food availability and dietary diversity among rural livelihoods in the municipality of Yaguajay, Sancti Spíritus, for the past forty years (1980s–2020s). It integrates findings from focus groups, repeated nutritional surveys, and interviews carried out between 2016 and 2022 among residents of the towns of Yaguajay and La Picadora. The goal is to identify effects and response strategies within agro-food systems of rural populations. Distinguishing between periods of abundance and shortage, our findings show two counterpoints: intensive sugar monocrop cultivation, which resulted in high dietary variety; and economic crises in the 1990s and during the last period of the pandemic, which have led to significant dietary adjustments. The article concludes by underscoring the importance of comprehensive assessments of dietary strategies to elicit what agroecological transitions mean for local realities and of the value of food consumption and small-holder production experiences to understand the limits to sustainable transformations.