City planner gets urban agricultural tips from trip to Cuba
DOVER — An international trip gave City Planner Chris Parker a chance to learn how to implement urban agricultural strategies closer to home.
In November, Parker was one of 400 people — eight from the Granite State — to attend a conference in Cuba and learn more about the practice of urban agriculture. Parker was among several city planners nationwide to participate. Overall, representatives from 39 countries took part.
Parker said the conference was an opportunity for him to learn more about a subject that has interested him for several years. The City of Dover currently has a community garden, about a half-acre of space located off Sixth Street, where participants grow mostly vegetables. He said he hopes his time in Cuba will help him find innovative ways to encourage others to participate in this unusual brand of farming.
Now you have to ask, why would we need urban gardening? And why would we need to let a COMMUNIST COUNTRY who can’t feed its own people, teach US about gardening?
Dover’s Cuban Aggie!
Dover Taxpayers, it looks like we have other citizens who understand Dover City Planner C. Parker’s Cuban Escapade Scheme.
Fosters, you printed a response from Mr. Parker on Jan 10, 2014. Mr. Parker mentioned he “hoped his time in Cuba will help him find innovative ways to encourage others to participate”!
Mr Parker wants us to believe he’s interested in Cuban agricultural strategies. A communist country, is more aligned to Mr. Parker’s ideals, as long as he maintains that level of superiority and control here. Right! Like Che Guevara redistributed land to the peasants. Maybe he should have bought Che’s tedious “Guerrilla Warfare” or read Che’s own accounts on how this once Medical Doctor, relished in mass murder as a “tool” of political influence. At least if he had read the book, Mr. Parker could have consolidated centralized power as Che recommended. Much different than Al Qaeda’s loose “franchise” model of terrorism today. Maybe he should have bought a copy of “Farming Magazine,” (Amish, Mount Hope, OH) from about two years ago, when they did an entire multi-page story about Cuba’s gardens as a need to provide food. Because as most know, Cuba is WAY short of basic FOOD!
Who were the eight other NH attendees to this conference? Why aren’t they “celebrating” this totally functional trip? Most of us aren’t “HIP-Hop Stars, so we can’t just fly over to a communist country. How did he get there and was it US State Department approved? Was the trip public or privately funded?..OH! $460 came from city funds. What are their positions/titles within the community? I certainly hope someone from the critically acclaimed Strafford County Regional Planning “team” was in attendance. They certainly wouldn’t want to leave any “regulatory stone” unturned. There are probably differing “compliance” factors in Cuba. I’m sure they could learn about better “compartmentalization” to help all these SOLONS avoid the dreaded “Right To Know Law”
Agriculture takes 20% of the working population to produce 10% of the food. Cuba imports 80% of the food it consumes, and then rations it to the public.
Cuba imports 90% of it’s fuel. That 1949 De Soto coup don’t run on water! One would think being in the “Torrid Zone” they would have a longer growing season than New England. Yet, it’s still not enough in a communist country.
You know, on any given day, I could see someone in their garden and ask how their plants are growing. Most likely they’d be glad to share more information than I ever wanted. Politicians are above that! They would rather go somewhere where people might think they’re important. I guess there is nothing like a trip to Cuba to “mind-meld” with people who know how to control their subject!
Isn’t it good to know where our “potentates” stand? I hope Mr. Parker’s next venture will be to the Antarctic in July to learn how to make snow cones. But then again, what would the rescue cost be? Taxpayers should call for an outside investigation of this mess, and the entire details made public!
– Lou Archambault, SMSgt USAF (Ret)
Rochester