Montréjeau. Movie debate in the midst of an energy crisis

More than seventy spectators attended the screening at the cinema of the documentary “How Cuba survived in 1990 without oil”. This film highlights the “special period” in Cuba, at the beginning of the 1990s, when oil supplies collapsed after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. For Charles Talbot, a doctor in Earth Sciences and co-organizer of the event with the association Graines d’Avenir, it was an opportunity to invite the communities of Pays Comminges Pyrénées and local associations to exchange in a roundtable format to illustrate a period of history that resonates with current events. Today, “The energy crisis, exacerbated by wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, reminds us of a simple reality: we also have the possibility to self-produce our energy and food, by avoiding synthetic fertilizers for managing our crops. This also reduces our ecological impact through sanitation.” Thus, the following roundtable focused on a fertilizer-free and short-circuit food system. The organizers specifically emphasized the “agricultural and energy valorization of biodegradable organic waste”, as well as the emergence of local projects such as “Better Eating for Everyone in Comminges” or “Loc’alim”, a local food bank project in Comminges-Pyrénées.