06/02/15 06/02/15 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> we are raising $100,000, which we think won't be any problem at all for the 29 chapters of the tpp. amy: as the obama administration and other governments are trying to keep the draft text of the transpacific partneship secret wikileaks has just issued a call for a $100,000 bounty for anyone to leak the unseen chapters. we will speak to wikileaks founder julian assange.

then to cuba. >> with issued this morning a statement about the rescission of cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. amy: as the united states to execute off the list of state sponsors of terror, we will look at the changing tide between the two countries and their two new pieces recorded in cuba. all of that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in china, hundreds of people are missing after a cruise ship carrying 458 people capsized in the yangtze river. five bodies have been recovered and 14 people have been rescued, but the vast majority aboard remain unaccounted for. rescuers have been tapping on the hull of the ship in an effort to locate survivors. the self-proclaimed islamic state has launched a new offensive in the northern syrian province of aleppo. the militants have pushed back an alliance which includes

western-backed rebels, capturing villages near the turkish border and coming within 30 milies of a main border crossing between turkey and syria. as rebels appealed to the united states for airstrikes to counteract the assault, the u.s. embassy in syria accused the syrian military of carrying out air strikes to help isil's advance. according to the britain-based syrian observatory for human rights, may marked the bloodiest month so far this year in syria, with more than 6650 people killed across the country. in iraq, suicide bombers from the self-proclaimed islamic state rammed humvees packed with explosives into a police base in anbar province, killing at least 45 iraqi police officers. the attack resembled the tactics isil used to take control of ramadi deploying humvees which seized from iraqi forces. iraqi officials have

acknowledged security forces lost about 2300 humvees to isil when they retreated from mosul last year. last year, the obama administration reportedly approved the sale of 1000 machine-gun-equipped humvees to iraq at a cost of $579 million. the white house has rejected the possibility of dropping charges against nsa whistleblower edward snowden, despite supporting a bill to overhaul the bulk phone spying program he exposed. white house press secretary josh earnest urged the senate to pass the usa freedom act, which would store phone data in the hands of phone companies, rather than the nsa. but earnest refused to consider a shift in the administration's stance on snowden, who has asylum in russia. >> the fact is, mr. snowden committed very serious crimes and the u.s. government and the department of justice believe that he should face them. and that is why we believe that mr. snowden should return to the united states where he will face

due process and he will have the opportunity if he returns to the united states to make that case in a court of law. amy: the bulk surveillance program expired at 12:01 am monday, after kentucky senator rand paul blocked efforts to extend it. the senate is now considering the house-passed usa freedom act, which would reform bulk spying and reauthorize two other expired provisions of the patriot act. shiite houthi rebels in yemen have released a u.s. freelance journalist held captive for about two weeks. state department spokesperson marie harf confirmed the release of casey coombs, who writes for the intercept, bbc and global post. >> the u.s. citizen casey combs has arrived safely in oman. he is in stable condition. he was met with officials and their providing all possible assistance. amy: in a landmark religious discrimination case, the supreme court has ruled in favor of a muslim woman rejected from a job for wearing a headscarf. samantha elauf was denied a job

at an abercrombie and fitch store in tulsa, oklahoma because a manager objected to her hijab, which violated the retailer's rules on employee attire. in a ruling supported by eight of the nine supreme court justices, justice antonin scalia wrote, "an employer may not make an applicant's religious practice, confirmed or otherwise, a factor in employment decisions." only justice clarence thomas disagreed. the company is abercrombie & fitch. a new investigation by the guardian has found african americans are more than twice as likely as white people to be unarmed when they are killed in encounters with police. the guardian found 102 of the 464 people killed in incidents with law enforcement this year were not carrying weapons -- that amounts to just over one in five. but among african americans, 32% of those killed by police were unarmed, compared to 25% of latinos and 15% of whites.

meanwhile in missouri, a report from the state attorney general's office has shown police were 75% more likely to stop african-american than white drivers, and 73% more likely to search them. yet african americans who were searched were less likely to possess anything illegal, than whites. in mexico, 10,000 people took to the streets of mexico city to protest the neoliberal education reforms of president enrique peña nieto. the protests came after the mexican government announced it would suspend plans for teacher evaluations following mass opposition. meanwhile, teacher union members ransacked election offices in southern mexico on monday, stealing and burning ballots occupying 11 offices in the state of oaxaca and blocking a storage facility of the state-run oil firm pemex. the teachers have announced a strike to protest the reforms and boycott sunday's midterm elections. on the campaign telling the united states, south carolina republican senator lindsey

graham has entered the presidential race. graham launched his campaign monday with a warning about "radical islam running wild." >> the world is exploding in terror and violence, the biggest threat of all is the nuclear ambitions of the radical islamists who control iran. ladies and gentlemen, there are no moderates in iran running their government. amy: senator lindsey graham's campaign launch comes just days after presidential hopeful and fellow republican senator rand paul blamed graham and other "hawks" in the gop for the existence of the self-proclaimed islamic state. another presumed republican presidential hopeful, jeb bush is the top speaker at a secretive meeting of coal company executives in virginia which wraps up today. according to the center for media and democracy, the closed-door meeting included top republican party donors who each paid at least $7500 to attend the three-day retreat.

in the latest sign of the revolving door between wall street banks and the government institutions tasked with regulating them, the securities and exchange commission has confirmed it just hired a managing director of goldman sachs to become chief of staff. before his stint at goldman, andrew "buddy" donohue led the sec's investment management division during four years spanning the global financial crisis. and the olympic gold medalist and reality tv show star formerly known as bruce jenner has broken internet records following the unveiling of a "vanity fair" cover story about her new identity as a woman. jenner is the former step-parent of the kardashian sisters. she announced her transition to living as a woman earlier this year, before unveiling her new name and appearance in "vanity fair." after her first twitter post monday, jenner broke a world record a garnering one million followers in just four hours. president obama took a little under five hours to hit the same

benchmark. chase strangio of the aclu notes -- "telling [caitlyn jenner's] story with care means using the right name and pronoun, but it also means highlighting the extent to which it is not the typical trans story...for example, the facial feminization surgery that caitlyn describes in "vanity fair" is almost universally excluded from [health insurance] coverage." jenner's transition comes as a new report details "pervasive violent abuse" against lgbt people around the world, with hundreds of hate-related killings in the past few years. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now! democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. despite last week's senate vote approving a measure to give president obama fast-track authority to negotiate the secretive trans-pacific partnership deal opposition to , the deal continues to mount ahead of the upcoming house vote. critics, including a number of democratic lawmakers, oppose the tpp, saying it will fuel

inequality, kill jobs, and undermine health, environmental and financial regulations. the negotiations have been secret and the public has never seen most of the deal's text. well, this morning, the whistleblowing group wikileaks launched a campaign to change that. the group is seeking to raise $100,000 to offer what they describe as a bounty for the leaking of the unseen chapters of the tpp. wikileaks just posted this video online. >> wikileaks is raising 100,000 dollar reward for the missing chapters on america's most wanted secret -- the transpacific partnership. and this is why. >> tpp is for american businesses, american businesses, businesses. >> the transpacific partnership. it might not sound import you until you hear democrats railing against their own president, saying his job could be on the line. >> who will benefit from the tpp? it is enforceable global governance. >> a giveaway to monster

transnational corporations. >> wall street, telecom, big polluters and outsourcers are all salivating at the chance to rig the upcoming trade deals in their favor. >> all 29 chapters of the tpp are secret, but three of them have been wikileaksed. >> united states has negotiated islamist entirely in secret without of about 600 private corporations. >> it is a multi-trillion dollar treaty being negotiated behind closed doors by the obama administration. they say it is a free trade deal, but in reality, it is anything but free. 80% of it isn't even about trade. >> there are 29 chapters only five had to do it trade. they have to do with our freedom on the internet, financial regulation, food and product safety. >> the treaty covers nearly half of the world's economy and is the largest ever negotiated.

it will have implications the on matters of trade, intruding into most every aspect of people's lives. the tpp fans favoring local businesses. experts say it will send billions of jobs overseas and drive down wages of conditions at home. multinational corporations will be able to sue the government for passing laws, including on the environment and health protections that they claim affect their expected future profits. >> that is what a company was able to sue a country for public health measure through an international court. how is that possible? a company with annual net revenues of $80 billion basically threatened to sue togo, whose entire gdp is a fraction of that. back down from a public health all that many people wanted.

this not just togo. tobacco, the suit australia news highest court. philip morris international is currently suing uruguay. quick pharmaceutical companies will be allowed to expand the monopolies restricting the availability of affordable generic drugs. the tpp requires internet service providers to become internet policeman, watching your every click. it is a one-way ticket. once signed, it will be locked into place for decades. but the scariest thing about the tpp is that there are 26 chapters that cover our daily lives that we have not seen. amy: part of a new video released by wikileaks today. on memorial day, i traveled to london and interviewed wikileaks founder julian assange inside the ecuadorean embassy where he lived for nearly three years with political asylum. assange faces investigations in both sweden and the united states.

i asked him about wikileaks's tpp campaign. >> we are raising 100,000, which we don't want be in a problem -- which we think will be any problem, for the 29 chapters of the tpp. we have our he obtained four and published watch oh, but we would also like updated versions of those four. rice is so important? this agreement covers 40% of the global economy and it lays the foundations for a new system of international law. that will be embedded in all of the economies involved and a predecessor agreement to something called the ttip, which is the u.s.-eu version. >> transatlantic trade and investment partnership. >> this will cover more than -- it is the framework if it gets

through of international law and filtering into domestic -- it is the construction of a new world, a new way of doing things, a new regime. it is, in historical terms, the largest ever such agreement negotiated. so that is the importance. we also want to demonstrate whistleblowers who give information in relation to this they should not be chased or harassed, they should be celebrated. they should be celebrated by the nobel prize celebrates people who do good work. and so i think we can achieve not just encouragement and incentive for people to look for such information but, rather we can award and celebrate their courage and tenacity in getting

a hold of those. amy: in a sense, you're saying it is not paying for the information, but prize money for turning it over? >> prize money for demonstrating the courage and tenacity in funding such information. amy: can we go to the issue of journalism in the united states and how it is being practiced today when it comes to whistleblowers? the issue of what it means to get information from a whistleblower, how you get that information? you have said you feel this is deeply endangered now and that laws are being considered would criminalize journalism. >> we want to -- we also want to take a strong stand in relation to this. the u.s. government, in terms of its attack on wikileaks, has tried to construct the theory which, if permitted, will be the end of national security journalism. not just in the united states but also about the united states. that claim is that journalists

cannot solicit information from sources. and to solicit information is to be involved in a conspiracy. amy: an accomplice. >> the united states, in terms of the -- that it is trying to judge me with, conspiracy and conspiracy to commit espionage. this is rubbish. we cannot tolerate this but the political levels or the media level. if we do tolerate it, then that standard will be corrected. what happens in practice? how this traditional vesta gated journalism work? -- how does traditional investigative journalism work? when you hear a rumor that there may have been an event and you go and speak to your sources, or perhaps one approach is you say, "i heard that this happened."

then you say, "well, that is good but we need to be a little prove it." so do you have information that can prove it? they say "well, i think i might have some report on the incident." and then you say, "well, that is good, can we have that report?" that is the way journalism has always been done. now the u.s. doj -- amy: that is the smoking gun. >> that is the smoking gun. without those documents, you don't get anywhere. if you've got that then they are undeniable if they are official documents. we cannot allow a standard to be elected and national security journalism or other forms of investigative journalism where that is not permitted, were that is seen to be unlawful. a number of journalists, as a

result of the doj pushing this line, that it is unlawful to solicit tips from sources have been -- to protect themselves, they have said they are not. but as a result, a new standard has been erected, is in danger of being erected, were you cannot solicit tips from sources. now we even fell into this mistake back in 2011-2012, where our situation was quite precarious based on legal advice wikileaks doesn't solicit information. in fact, wikileaks is one of the few organizations, because of our infrastructure, that we do often get unsolicited information.

but we think it is necessary to hold the line and say, no asking for tips is an important thing to do. it has always been done in journalism. and we are going to show that we do that, we do that, we're confident about doing that confident that it is legal, and should be legal in the united states. we say is legal under the first amendment. if the u.s. doj wants to have a fight about that in relation to the tpp or anything else, then bring it on. amy: julian assange speaking inside the ecuadorian embassy in london where he has taken refuge for the past three years. i interviewed him on memorial day. you can go to democracynow.org to see the two hours of our exclusive interview. also go to democracynow.org for the graduation speech you were not supposed to hear, the response has been tremendous when we played it yesterday on democracy now!

now we are posted part two of our interview with evan young the colorado charter high school valedictorian who was barred from speaking at graduation because he was planning to come out as gay. that is democracynow.org. when we come back, cuba. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to cuba.

the u.s. has formally removed cuba from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, clearing a main obstacle to restoring diplomatic ties with havana. for the first time in over five decades. cuba was placed on the terrorism list in 1982 at a time when havana was supporting liberation struggles in africa and latin america. state department spokesperson jeff rathke made the announcement on friday. >> we have issued this morning a statement about the rescission of cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism. it is effective today, may 29 2015, and this reflects our assessment after undertaking the review that was requested by the president, our assessment that cuba meets the statutory criteria for rescission. amy: a former diplomat praised the obama administration's decision. >> in the first place, we should not have been on that list ever

because cuba has never supported terrorist activities. as president raul castro has said, it is cuba who has been the victim of terrorist activities. what does it mean? it means cuba can operate more safely now, that our citizens are going to be subject -- aren't going to be subject to harassment because they come from a terrorist country, that our companies will be able to operate normally with banks. so there are a number of benefits. and a very important benefit has to do with internal workings of the united states system. amy: while cuba is not off the terrorism list, most of the u.s. sections remain in place. today we will spend the rest of the hour looking at the changing u.s.-cuban relations. joining us in new york is jane franklin, author and historian of cuba. her book, "cuba and the united states: a chronological history," is now available in spanish. she is also the author of, "cuban foreign relations: a chronology 1959-1982."

franklin just gave a talk at the left forum called, "cuba's long resistance to miseries in the name of freedom." her writings on cuba are available at janefranklin.info. the significance of the u.s. taking cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism, jane? >> it is one of the major obstacles -- or was -- to normalization of relations with cuba. when president obama and president castro announced the attempt to improve relations and move toward normalization, this is one of the main obstacles along with the embargo, the trade embargo, and the base at one time a still occupied by u.s. armed forces. this is a major reduction of the obstacle -- there are plenty left. amy: what does it mean exactly? what now can cuba do now that it is awfully list?

>> the one thing it cannot be called a terrorist organization, which has a lot to do with relations with other countries, especially in europe. and also with its relations with banks. banks don't want to invest in a country that is called a terrorist country, because the united states funds banks for trading with cuba and if there is a sanction against that, another isn't because cuba is not on the list of terrorist nations. amy: in april, senator marco rubio of florida blasted the obama administration's plan to remove cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. >> the decision made by the white house today is a terrible one, but not surprising, unfortunately. cuba is a state sponsor of terrorism. they harbor fugitives of american justice including someone who killed a police officer in new jersey over 30 years ago. it is also the country helping north korea evade weapons

sanctions by the united nations. they should have remained on the list of state sponsors of terrorism and i think it sends a chilling message to our enemies abroad that this white house is no longer serious about calling terrorism by the proper name. amy: that was senator marco rubio, sending a chilling message to our enemies abroad. jane franklin? >> marco rubio's parents left cuba when batista was the dictator of cuba. so they knew what repressive government was light. marco rubio has not been to cuba under this new government, the revolutionary government. if he went there -- amy: he has not been there at all? >> no, he was born in this country after his parents left cuba before the revolution. so he needs to go there and experience cuba as it is now. amy: can you talk about why this happened now?

>> that is a very interesting question, amy. a paradigm shift happened in 2009 when the organization of american states voted to renew cuba's membership or presence in the organization of american states. it had been suspended in 1962. president obama made it clear he would not attend and oas summit in 2012 is cuba was in attendance. meanwhile, and this is the paradigm shift cuba and other nations are joining together in the latin american and caribbean community of nations, which was formed officially in 2011 in venezuela when president chavez was the initiator of this

fabulous organization -- which contains all nations of the western hemisphere except for the united states and canada. so that switched from being and oas, which had all the nations with cuba suspended, two in organization that excludes the united states. this was in 2011. in 2012 at the summit, the countries in oas voted again that cuba be present at the oas summit in 2015. president obama and the head of the canadian government voted against that, so there was no final statement. obama was faced with two choices. he could isolate himself even further by not attending a president raul castro attended, or he could be a statesman. he decided to try to be a statesman. and he began the secret

negotiations the next year, 2013, that led to the announcements last december. so in the announcements were made last december, the setup was for the 2015 summit. he wanted to be able to greet president raul castro as a statesman -- and he did do that except for one major flood which was in march, he declared venezuela was a threat to the national security of the united states, which was such an absurd statement that he had to retract it very soon. and he ended up at the summit with raul castro. i think it happened now because latin america and the caribbean states forced his hand. amy: what does this mean now as cuba opens up to the united states? >> it is a wonderful step forward because everything is on

the table now. the head of the delegation in these negotiations for cuba makes it very clear that they can talk about anything and negotiate anything. they are open to changing things, they are open to all kinds of discussion -- maybe even some concessions -- except for one major policy. they want to retain their independence and sovereignty. that is what they are determined to do and are doing in these negotiations. amy: i want to go to cuba for a moment. democracy now! recently traveled to cuba or karen produced this piece on the growing private tourism industry during these changing times in cuba. clocks in many ways, cuba seems

to be in a time or but things are changing quickly. since the december 17 announcement by president obama that the u.s. would not relax -- would relax him as exhibit economic and trade embargo americans have flooded the island with more than one million expected to visit this year. with already increased travel and hotels are now booked months in advance. the cuban government has been forming economic partnerships with corporations all around the world, leaving the u.s. out of the equation. now all of the tourist buses are imported from china. they have partnered with brazil and china and the megaproject to reconstruct the port at marielle they to allow containers filled with imports to enter the harbor. there's everything you want if you can shop using foreign currency, but for those who earn only pesos, choices and a government subsidized store have swindled, causing increased

economic polarization -- dwindled, causing increased economic polarization. since castro became president, small businesses restrictions have been eased. now you can earn money privately, but must pay taxes on those earnings. have the new economic changes been good for you? >> very good because now there are possibilities to work. >> yeah, but it pays very little. " it is true and i have to get up at four clock >> a new private business started by conner gory, an american ex-pat who is lived in cuba for 13 years. her idea was to create a space

for foreign visitors to have conversations with everyday cubans. >> all of this tourism and private businesses bringing more money into cuban coffers, so that they can dedicate that money to the social safety net -- free education, free education, housing, etc., and improve all of the services for everybody written in the constitution. on the other hand, it is creating inequalities for people who cannot enter into the private sector coming cannot patronize businesses in the private sector. that is a real danger. we are seeing it happen. what we would like to see is the network of socially responsible businesses that provides hope for moving forward so that the two different kinds of models can work together. quite's people all over have been our renting rooms in their homes. airbnb just listed 1000 cuban rentals.

>> the hoaxes that this absurd >> hundreds of private restaurants have been opening and every craney. .

>> i am one of the people involved in this project very adventurous project. a restaurant in the heart of havana. these to study the country which doesn't exist anymore, the soviet union. we captured a little bit of the aesthetics of the time. come with me. this is a little private room dedicated to the czars. we also display here kind of a variety. we receive every week like a lot of american visitors. the human necessity -- the

americans are coming more and more. clocks we're giving to a job around 30 people. there are 30 cubans and 30 families which are now solving the basic problems with dignity. they're are very responsible with the service they provide to their customers. i mean, they will earn more -- they will learn more. and this is a person who will be more happy and he will be happy in the internal area of his family and also in the rest of society.

society is try to not only renovate but to rethink the meaning of this socialism. and make up a special thanks to karen for new chief and monica for that piece from cuba. jane franklin is still with us. so private enterprise in cuba, your comments? >> when my husband and i were there in april for the presentation of my book in spanish translation, we found for instance, a wonderful business around the corner from our hotel and we enjoyed eating there whenever we had a chance to either. the food was very good, by the way. and in the waiters were wonderful. -- and the waiters were wonderful. what we found among the cuban people with whom we talked quite a bit is a great excitement that this is happening, a sense of happiness about the

possibilities, and it means so much for the cuban people that the whole oppressive united states threat from cuba has been lifted. it may not be gone, but recently has been lifted. amy: talk about private enterprise and socialism. >> i think they have to find a way to balance the two. there is no conflict as far as actual economics goes. as josefina vidal is it over and over they welcome the chance to deal with this challenge. they're not afraid of it because they have their own culture their own educational system. the main thing we were impressed with in cuba is the education of the average person that we spoke with. that they know so much.

here in the united states, we are very misinformed and uninformed. in cuba, they do get a lot of news and they pay attention to that news. if you want me to go to that a bit, i was on national cuban tv about six times while i was there. people would walk up to me in the street and say, "the writer." they were so excited to meet someone who is writing about the history of cuba. this is built into the colts are now. it is part of the culture. amy: jane franklin, thank you for being with us, author and historian of cuba. her book "cuba and the united , states: a chronological history," is now available in spanish and english. she is also the author of, "cuban foreign relations: a chronology 1959-1982." she just gave a talk at the left forum called, "cuba's long resistance to miseries in the name of freedom." when we come back, we look at organic agriculture in cuba.

stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we continue our coverage of cuba with catherine murphy am a a filmmaker who lived and studied in cuba in the 1990's. her film titled "maestra" explores the stories of the youngest women teachers in the 1961 national literacy campaign in cuba. catherine murphy joins us from miami. we want to welcome you to democracy now! we're going to be playing another piece looking at organic agriculture very interesting in cuba. but it also goes to the issue of private enterprise, not just small mom-and-pop shops

restaurants, that and breakfasts , but what about the multinationals? how are they preparing to enter cuba? >> i think there is a lot of desire on behalf of the multinationals to enter cuba the untapped markets with a large fire, even though -- well there are 11 million people on the island but there are central buyers for key food and agriculture products. so it is a large market for the corporations. they are hungry to get into those markets. but the cubans, i think, have both a need for increasing key imports and also a lot of healthy skepticism of not giving the corporations too much space not losing key industries on the island, and not losing control over key sectors of the economy. amy: let's go to the second piece of karen's from her recent

trip to cuba. this will looking at organic farming on the island. it begins with a german who runs a farm outside of havana. -- gentleman who runs a farm outside of havana. >> this land belongs to the previous farmer living here. he is now 96 years old. the land still belongs to him and i farm the land. it is part of the appropriation of the land, but in another way. so you get the land, you farm the land, [indiscernible] we started here with one bed two years ago and now we have more than 100 beds which we produce vegetables to sell directly to the consumers in the city. what we do here is based on organic practices.

there is criticism about organic agriculture, which is not able to feed the world. and we think it is the opposite. we can take advantage of the knowledge already accumulated for hundreds of years of farmers and the knowledge from science. we manage the system in a way that doesn't need the use of pesticides. we have beehives in the farm. when you have enough beehives to start as a beekeeper, than the government starts providing you this device and also increase the boxes and other materials to grow faster. we don't see that problem that is already identified in different countries like in the united states about beehives or honey collapse. we see their growing very, very

well. in the last year, there is more and more possibilities for farmers and for the whole population to participate in the economic relationship that follows food production or services. there is the possibility to start new businesses based on food distribution and also -- in order to increase the capacity to make use of production. with organic agriculture with our ecology, we breathable to produce healthy food in order to grow healthy food in the cities and the whole country. when we have this kind of system, then we can also assure that we have enough for the people in the countryside and

expectation for them to live better from their work. >> i was a librarian. >> i worked in public health and then a day care center. >> i worked in a dairy factory making yogurt for children. >> we learn more here.

>> now we have for two months, no rains in the farm. it is been very hard. we were watering last night until 8:00 in the night by hand in order to make better use of the water we have available at this moment. in the near future, we plan to have interrogation system for all the beds. this was made by hand. we dug until 40 meters by hand. and there was one month that had enough wells, to dig the wells as much as i had [indiscernible]

look, look, i'm not doing anything in the stick is going up. >> we went to different places around, to different farms where we identified water. i will with him and am trying to learn. so we're trying to connect all of the energy possibilities in the farm in order not to use oil. we found the water with solar the solar pump him and then we captured the manure and the urine. it goes to a take.

the first layer is fresh manure. the biogas goes out. we're getting out the energy in biogas that has the manure and then we use the biogas every day as much food as we need. michael is writing his thesis. now he is living at the farm and we are sharing the farming system.

amy: a special thanks to karen and monica for that report in cuba. our guest right now, catherine murphy who was on that trip, also a film maker who has lived and studied in cuba. can you fit the organic agriculture movement in cuba to the bigger picture? is cuba the only country in the world that gave millions of actors of acres to people who grow and farm? >> part of what happening cuba was that in the 1980's, cuba had

highly mechanized and industrialized agriculture system. they had more tractors per capita than any country in latin america, and they were investing a lot of money international food production. but nonetheless, they were still importing 57% of the calories even on the island, from the soviet union and soviet bloc countries. when the soviet union fell apart, cuba lost those imports immediately, within two to three years, along with the 34%, 35% contraction of their gdp. it launched cuba into a major economic crisis, and that was a food and never culture crisis. -- a food and agriculture crisis , also due to the loss of the many other imports into the agriculture sector upon which national food production had become dependent. again, pesticides, fertilizers petroleum tractors, spare

parts, spare parts for other kind of agriculture machinery. so they were faced with the daunting task of meeting to greatly increase food production with a fraction of the resources available. immediately, city particular havana has 2 million of the 11 million people on the island, the largest city in the caribbean, havana residents started going out and growing food on empty lots that were close to their homes using any seeds they could find with any tools available. and literally, on any space that was near their homes, including some in their homes -- patios, balconies, rooftops. urban farming was increasing all around the world at that time in the 1990's with global urbanization, but what was different about havana was that the city government and other structures started to look at how they could strategically support this booming victory

garden movement as opposed to other cities around the world were urban food production became illegal and sometimes people would run off. the van a city government started to look, how can we support who producers in the city, not only support them, but really recognize the food production is a major national priority? so they started finding ways to get urban food producers use rights to land, give them sales permits to do direct sales from on-site, help them find ways to get water, and help them with training and resources, but really, the kind of agriculture that is necessary in small spaces is highly diversified intensive planting, was not the kind of agriculture that it happened in cuba traditionally. there was a whole new body of knowledge that needed to come to these already farming and urban farmers. and so a permit culture movement

was born. the council of churches got involved. many organizations, the women's federation, and helping to strategically support the urban farmers. within several years they help to turn around the most critical part of the food crisis, which was dramatic. i think it is hard to imagine the caloric intake fell by about half, the average cuban lost 10 to 20 pounds of body weight. there were a number of health epidemics, including an eye neuropathy epidemic that resulted in nervous system damage and some eye and vision damage. so this rapid decrease in caloric intake was a serious -- was really seen as the most serious problem on the island at the time and became a priority issue to solve. so with this public-private

partnership, the ruble to turn it around and within just a few years, there were tens of thousands of urban gardens around the city andperiurban gardens and they were growing 30% to 50% of the fresh vegetables the county the island, introducing vegetables that had never been eaten in cuba before like broccoli cauliflower, some things like eggplant that were not so common and really improved the quality of the diet will stop i mean, especially the greenlee view vegetables providing key micronutrients and the lack of other proteins -- and it changed the cityscape. it changed -- and vastly improved the food security situation. it also changed the cityscape. it provided tens of thousands of jobs, significantly, for retired people and for women and for youth. amy: since we only have 30 seconds, how much food is imported into cuba?

how much do they rely on outside food? in this organic food movement or farming movement, how much hope do you think it has in a new cuba? >> the figures about how much food is imported to cuba today is hotly contested. it is still the majority. some figures show 50% up to 80% of the food is still imported. for example, you cannot grow in the tropics. they have to import it. they import a lot of frozen chicken from the united states through tyson foods and others. they import rice. but they are still increasing food production on the island like roots, rice beans, fruits and vegetables. the third agrarian reform now, giving land 100 50,000 people have asked for parcels of land in this new land dissolution -- amy: i want to thank you so much for being with us, film maker

catherine murphy. tuesday, will become the first u.s. professional team to play in cuba since president castro and obama announced the countries would reestablish diplomatic relations. i'm amy goodman. thank you for joining us. [captioning made possibl

ons. the result is a vast and complicated system in which pollution has become a commodity. and the carbon credits have