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During his life, Fidel Castro had a fascination with dairy products that has been described as an obsession. [1] [2] Due to this, he tried to develop the Cuban dairy industry, which failed in the long term. Dairy has been said to be "as integral to Cuban culture as Cohiba cigars". [2]
Castro was known to eat large quantities of ice cream, and according to Gabriel Garcia Márquez, once ate between 18 and 28 scoops of it after a meal. [1] During the on-going American embargo against Cuba, Castro sent his ambassador to Canada to purchase and ship him 28 containers of ice cream from Howard Johnson's, which was the largest restaurant chain in the United States at the time. [2] [3]
In 1961, the Central Intelligence Agency tried to use Castro's love of ice cream against him. At the time, Castro would order a chocolate milkshake from the Havana Libre Hotel lunch counter every day. Richard Bissell Jr., the CIA deputy director for plans, offered Sam Giancana and Santo Trafficante, Jr., the heads of the Chicago and Tampa crime families, $150,000 to assassinate Castro. They gave a pill of botulinum toxin to a waiter with the goal of putting it in Castro's chocolate milkshake, but the pill froze to the side of the hotel's freezer and broke. [1] This was one of allegedly more than 600 failed assassination attempts on Castro by the CIA. [4]
In 1966, Fidel Castro had a large ice cream parlor built in Havana called Coppelia. [5]
One of Fidel Castro's many dairy-themed projects was an attempt to create Camembert cheese better than France's. When the French farmer André Voisin visited Cuba in 1964, Castro gave him some Cuban Camembert. Voisin said that the cheese was "not too bad", and eventually admitted that it was "similar" to the French cheese, but refused to say that it was better than France's. This upset Castro, but Voisin pacified him by telling him that French cheese and Cuban cigars were both backed by hundreds of years of experience, and that like Cuban cigars, French cheese was the best in its category. [1] [6]
After experimenting with Cuba's ice cream and cheese industries, Fidel Castro began working on creating a milk industry. Cuba had previously only had Criollo and Zebu cattle, two breeds notable for their resistance to hot Cuban weather, but not suitable for large-scale milk production. Castro attempted to overcome this problem by ordering several thousand Holstein bulls and cows from Canada, which he tried to keep alive in air-conditioned facilities. Nearly one-third of the Holstein cattle bought died within the first few weeks, and using climate-controlled facilities for Cuba's entire dairy industry would be impossible. As a result, Castro began to breed the Holsteins with native breeds in order to produce hybrid cattle that could produce milk while also surviving Cuba's harsh tropical weather. Castro referred to these hybrids as "Tropical Holsteins". [1]
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, thousands of cattle died from malnutrition and poor living conditions, and their numbers were steadily decreasing. Castro did have one notable victory, however; in 1972, Ubre Blanca was born. She was highly prolific, producing 113 liters of milk in one day in 1982, as well as 24,268.9 liters in a single lactation cycle that same year. Castro loved Ubre Blanca, and made sure that she was well taken care of. She had an air-conditioned stable with music and a security detail. Castro even brought foreign dignitaries to visit the cow. [2] Ubre Blanca was a symbol of national pride, and the communist party newspaper Granma published daily updates on her health and milk production. [1]
Ubre Blanca's death made national news in Cuba. Granma ran a full-page obituary, and Ubre Blanca received military honors, a eulogy poem, and a marble statue in her honor. In 2002, Cuban scientists tried to clone Ubre Blanca using genetic samples taken from when she was alive. [2] [7]
In 1987, Castro once again asked a team of scientists to genetically engineer cattle, this time hoping to create dog-sized cows to live in people's homes and produce enough milk for each family. [7] This idea never came to fruition. [1] [2]
A dairy is a place where milk is stored and where butter, cheese and other dairy products are made, or a place where those products are sold. It may be a room, a building or a larger establishment. In the United States, the word may also describe a dairy farm or the part of a mixed farm dedicated to milk for human consumption, whether from cows, buffaloes, goats, yaks, sheep, horses or camels.
Brie is a soft cow's-milk cheese named after Brie, the French region from which it originated. It is pale in colour with a slight greyish tinge under a rind of white mould. The rind is typically eaten, with its flavour depending largely upon the ingredients used and its manufacturing environment. It is similar to Camembert, which is native to a different region of France. Brie typically contains between 60% and 75% butterfat, slightly higher than Camembert.
The Holstein Friesian is an international breed or group of breeds of dairy cattle. It originated in Frisia, stretching from the Dutch province of North Holland to the German state of Schleswig-Holstein. It is the dominant breed in industrial dairy farming worldwide, and is found in more than 160 countries. It is known by many names, among them Holstein, Friesian and Black and White.
Dairy farming is a class of agriculture for the long-term production of milk, which is processed for the eventual sale of a dairy product. Dairy farming has a history that goes back to the early Neolithic era, around the seventh millennium BC, in many regions of Europe and Africa. Before the 20th century, milking was done by hand on small farms. Beginning in the early 20th century, milking was done in large scale dairy farms with innovations including rotary parlors, the milking pipeline, and automatic milking systems that were commercially developed in the early 1990s.
Dairy cattle are cattle bred with the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species Bos taurus.
The Brown Swiss or American Brown Swiss is an American breed of dairy cattle. It derives from the traditional triple-purpose Braunvieh of the Alpine region of Europe, but has diverged substantially from it. It was selectively bred for dairy qualities only, and its draft and beef capabilities were lost. Milk yield was measured in 2013 at 10231 kg (22600 lb) per year; the milk has about 4% butterfat and 3.5% protein and is suitable for making cheese.
Channel Island milk is a creamy, light-beige coloured cow's milk from the Jersey cattle and Guernsey cattle breeds. This variety of milk is commonly called Jersey milk and is also known as gold-top milk from the color of the bottle cap used to distinguish it. Channel Island milk is produced in the Channel Islands off the northwestern French coast of Normandy, as well as in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa, Denmark, the United States and Canada.
Hotel Tryp Habana Libre is one of the larger hotels in Cuba, situated in Vedado, Havana. The hotel has 572 rooms in a 25-floor tower at Calle 23 and Calle L. Opened in 1958 as the Habana Hilton, the hotel famously served as the residence of Fidel Castro and other revolutionaries throughout 1959, after their capture of Havana.
Agriculture in Cuba has played an important part in the economy for several hundred years. Today, it contributes less than 10% to the gross domestic product (GDP), but it employs about 20% of the working population. About 30% of the country's land is used for crop cultivation.
Ubre Blanca was a cow in Cuba known for her prodigious milk production. The cow, along with the "Cordón de La Habana" coffee plantations, the Voisin pasture system, and the microjet irrigation system, symbolized Fidel Castro's efforts to modernize Cuba's agricultural economy. The Spanish name Ubre Blanca translates to English as "White Udder."
Ramón Eusebio Castro Ruz was a Cuban revolutionary, activist and farmer. He was the eldest brother of Fidel and Raúl Castro and a key figure of the early days of the Cuban Revolution.
Strauss Group Ltd., formerly known as Strauss-Elite, is an Israeli manufacturer and marketer of consumer foods sold through retail stores. It is among the largest food manufacturers in Israel. Strauss Group focuses on dairy products, coffee, water, snacks, salads, and dips. Its subsidiary Strauss Coffee is a leading coffee company in Eastern Europe and Brazil. Strauss Group is a public company traded in the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, with the majority of its shares (57%) being owned by the Strauss family.
The Montbéliarde is a breed of red pied dairy cattle from the area of Montbéliard, in the département of Doubs, in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region of eastern France. It is used mainly for dairying and particularly for cheesemaking.
Canadienne cattle, also known as Black Canadienne, French Canadienne, and Black Jersey, are the only breed of dairy cattle developed in Canada. They originated in the 16th century, when French settlers brought cattle over for foundation stock to settle Canada. The Canadienne were the most common breed of domestic cattle in Canada until the late 19th century, when other breeds began to displace them. Today, the Hereford and Holstein have become the most common types of cattle in Canada. The Canadienne, though still found on farms and ranches across the nation, is now comparatively rare except in certain areas of the province of Quebec. Efforts by an active breed society and the Quebec government have been made in recent years to preserve the breed from extinction.
Norberto Collado Abreu was the Cuban captain and helmsman of the yacht Granma, which brought Fidel Castro and 81 other rebels to Cuba from Tuxpan, Veracruz, Mexico, in 1956. The 1956 landing of Castro from the Granma in eastern Cuba began the Cuban Revolution which resulted in the termination of President Fulgencio Batista's government in 1959.
Coppelia is an ice cream parlor chain in Cuba, named after the ballet Coppélia. Originally built in a project led by Fidel Castro, Coppelia is state-run and sells in Cuban pesos (CUP). Havana's Coppelia employs more than 400 workers and serves 16,000 litres (4,200 US gal) of ice cream to 35,000 customers each day.
The Chaseholm Farm Creamery is a 350-acre (140 ha) family-run farm in Pine Plains, New York, on the borders of Dutchess and Columbia Counties in New York's Hudson Valley, protected by the Columbia Land Conservancy. It works with many farms in the surrounding Hudson Valley as part of the local food movement. The Chaseholm Farm Creamery is currently run by siblings Rory and Sarah Chase.
André Marcel Voisin was a French biochemist, farmer and author best known for developing the theory of Rational Grazing. He also lectured extensively on his theories in many parts of the world. His books have been translated into 18 languages and reprinted many times.
Greenfields is a dairy company based in Malang, Indonesia and the largest dairy company in Southeast Asia. Greenfields has 2 farms and a factory at hillside of Mount Kawi in Malang Regency and Blitar Regency. The company was founded on March 14, 1997. Greenfields is a popular milk brand in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Brunei, and the Philippines.
Industrias Lácteas Asturianas (Ilas) is a company based in the Asturian parish of Anleo in the council of Navia, Spain.
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