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It’s a straight shot south from
Atlanta to Havana. And if the U.S. government unlocks trade with
Cuba, University of Georgia scientists are ready to open doors
to better relations.
A group from the UGA College of Agricultural and
Environmental
Sciences, led by former UGA Vice President for Outreach S.
Eugene
Younts, visited Cuba this spring to begin swapping scientific
agricultural knowledge.
When Younts first visited Cuba in February 2000, he was
apprehensive.
But he found Cuban scientists not only receptive, but hungry for
our agricultural knowledge. After visiting Cuba’s Agriculture
Research Institute, Younts was impressed.
“They are very highly educated and have a much higher
literacy rate than we do,” he said. “I visited their
agricultural experiment stations and found they needed to meet
some of our scientists.”
Meeting of Minds
Younts returned for a second visit in April with Larry
Benyshek,
head of the CAES animal and dairy science department. This
second
visit began talks between UGA and Cuban scientists at CIMA (the
Center for Animal Improvement). CIMA officials invited UGA
scientists
to a conference.
In May, Benyshek led a group of animal scientists back to
Cuba.
The group included Benyshek, dairy nutritionist Joe West,
geneticist
Keith Bertrand, and Steve Stice, a reproductive biologist and
cloning expert.
The UGA scientists were impressed with the Cubans’ research
accomplishments.
“Cubans have their science,” Benyshek said. “It
has developed over the years. They’re doing what they can with
the resources they have.”
Seeking Science
And in some cases, they’re doing extremely well, particularly
in vaccine development and production.
Benyshek visited the Finlay Institute, which directs several
organizations involved in vaccine production. Its researchers
are always interested in developing new technology.
“They seek technology, and they seek to develop
technology,
which is why they are interested in the University of
Georgia,”
Benyshek said. “When the Russian support collapsed, the
economy
was left without any sort of underpinning.”
The food supply became a serious problem in Cuba, and the
future
is still uncertain. There are problems supplying enough of some
foods, including beef and milk.
“They are a food-deficit country by far, and they need
to import food,” Younts said. “They have really been
suffering since the Soviet Union collapsed. The USSR was giving
them money to buy food, and now that’s gone.”
Building Food
Political changes forced their agricultural researchers to
focus on rebuilding their food industry.
“A lot of their dairy industry and cattle ended up going
to meat,” Benyshek said. “They’re rebuilding their
dairy
industry now. That’s an area where we can be very helpful to
them.
They also have a thriving, developing swine industry.”
UGA hopes to continue the collaboration. Several Cuban
scientists
have been invited to visit here. “I think they have a number
of students and possible graduate students who could come
here,”
Benyshek said.
The Cubans need technical training, too.
“They have gathered cattle data for a number of years,
and they need to analyze it,” Benyshek said. “We have
a very good program in national and international cattle
evaluation
at UGA. We’ve done some cattle evaluation in South America, and
one of the visiting scientists will probably be looking at that
information while he’s here.”
Free Intellectual Trade
While each country will find some short-term benefits to this
project, most of the gains will be long-term.
“We are beginning an educational collaboration that
eventually,
when the embargo is lifted, will lead the people in this state
to business opportunities there,” Benyshek said.
“Our location is our major benefit in developing the
relationship,”
he said. “They can’t really deal with the closest state
(Florida)
due to the political climate. So as they come up the coast,
we’re
the first one they come to.”
Younts will return to Cuba this winter.
“I feel the University of Georgia should watch very
carefully
the developments there and continue to develop links that are
appropriate for this time,” he said.
“I think we should do what we can to help the
people,”
he said. “If we are going to trade with China and North
Korea,
we should research for ways to overcome obstacles that now
hinder
us from trading with 11 million of our neighbors who need
us.”
