On 29 May 2025, the Institute for International and Area Studies (hereinafter referred to as IIAS) at Tsinghua University invited Elisa Botella-Rodríguez, Associate Professor of Economics and Economic History at the University of Salamanca in Spain and a Research Fellow at the Center for Ibero-American Studies, to deliver a special lecture titled ‘Can Food Sovereignty Be Institutionalised? Insights from the Cuban Experience.’ The lecture was hosted by Tang Yongyan, a doctoral candidate at the Institute of International and Area Studies at Tsinghua University, and was attended by over 30 faculty members and students from universities both domestically and internationally via an online format.

Professor Elisa began by addressing the contradiction in Cuba's constitution, which enshrines food sovereignty but has not been fully implemented — that is, while the state proclaims food sovereignty, the reality of food access for the population remains challenging. Combining field research with structural political analysis, exploring Cuba's efforts to institutionalise food sovereignty since the ‘Special Period’ of the 1990s. She outlined strategies such as decentralising land ownership, developing urban agriculture, and promoting ecological agricultural practices (e.g., biological pest control and organic fertiliser use), which have created local ‘pockets of food sovereignty.’ However, issues like military enterprises controlling food distribution and low macro-level agricultural efficiency have hindered the integration of the national food system.

During the Q&A session of this lecture, participants engaged in lively discussions around the ‘tensions in the practice of food sovereignty in Cuba,’ including how ordinary farmers understand food sovereignty (more as a daily farming practice than a legal concept), the contradictions between government regulation and local autonomy in farmers' markets (such as farmers balancing between free markets and state quotas), and pathways to bridge the gap between law and reality (emphasising the importance of interaction between universities and grassroots communities). Additionally, Professor Elisa compared Cuba with other Global South countries, pointing out that Cuba's lack of agricultural capital oligarchies makes its unique ‘creative tension’ interaction model between the state and society more distinctive. However, it also faces practical challenges such as land abandonment and livelihood security, providing multi-dimensional insights into the institutional implementation of food sovereignty.

Professor Elisa Botella-Rodríguez received her PhD in Latin American Economics from the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London, in 2012-2013. Her current research focuses on the agricultural history and rural development of Latin America. Her academic work has been published in Journal of Agrarian Change, Rural History, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Economic History of Developing Regions, and Historia Agraria, among others.