For a country that responded to severe energy crisis by switching to organic, localized agriculture, the fruits of the revolution must be protected from the coming peace.

For those trying to imagine life without oil, Cuba has proven the solitary example of a country successfully de-industrializing.

Confronted with the collapse of aid from the Soviet Union and ever-tighter U.S. sanctions in the early 1990s, the Castro regime was forced to scupper its centrally-planned, fossil-fuel-driven agriculture and rediscover sustainable and green farming practices.

The solutions developed by a young generation of farmers and agronomists – including urban farms in vacant lots in the capital, Havana, and a network of producers across the country – now provide 80% of the country with predominantly local, organic produce and helped turn Cuba into an unintentional leader of the green movement.

And yet, scarcely has this revolution been achieved, but it is under threat – not from the imperial machination of America (a popular theme in Communist circles) but from the promise of Cuba’s re-integration into the world economy, raised by President Barack Obama at the recent Summit of the Americas.

The problem, say the leaders of Cuba’s green movement, is that opening up trade will flood the country with cheap oil and with it a return to an industrialized food supply. Recent subsidized oil imports from Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez have led to an increase in the use of fertilizers.

“Industrialized food production in Cuba means centralized planning and control. The government never wanted to give up control, and now with more oil, we may see the independence that localized, sustainable agriculture produces being undermined,” said Fernando Funes Monzote, a leading agronomist at the Indio Hatuey Experimental Station, University of Matanzas.

The solution, says Monzote, is for the government to develop a strategy that enshrines sustainability at the heart of agricultural policy, a recognition so far absent from the cabal of soviet-trained generals that surrounds the current president, Raul Castro (the current agriculture minister is also a general in the army).