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    Cuba's farmers have an opportunity to open up government-owned fallow land, but only if they step down from their tractors and use teams of oxen for field work. President Raul Castro feels that may be the best way to ramp up the country's food production while at the same time conserving energy. 
    Cuba's economy was devastated by three hurricanes last summer, and the global recession has left the government short on cash to cover debts. As a result, it has slashed spending and cut domestic production and foreign imports, causing shortages of such basics as cooking oil, ground beef and toilet paper.

    Milk price woes have European dairymen in a state of near riot. Farmers hold the European Union - rather than the worldwide economic collapse - responsible for their plight. According to an article in last Thursday's edition of The Economist dairymen want to preserve strict production ceilings on milk, even though some countries aren't close to hitting their ceilings, and even though production quotas are on the road to gradual phaseout.
    Some want immediate new production curbs to make milk scarcer and thus more expensive. Others attack supermarket chains, accusing them of profiteering. They note that retail prices for milk have hardly fallen while prices at the farm gate were plummeting.