With the onset of peak oil looming over the world as a spectre, a crucial conversation has begun, to seek solutions for coping with depleting levels of oil. We can learn lessons from the only country to have survived such a peak oil crisis: Cuba.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 drew Cuba into an economic catastrophe. Overnight, the country lost more than half of its oil imports and 80 percent of its food capacity. Against all odds, the country coped remarkably well by creating a sustainable local economy focusing largely on organic agricultural methods while preserving Cuba’s socialist ideals.