Economics

Planting Seeds Against the Cuban Embargo

Long before President Obama restored ties, American farmers were fighting sanctions—and may ultimately provide the muscle he (or his successor) needs to push a final deal through.

Farmers in Artemisa, Cuba, who met with a trade delegation from U.S. farm states in March.
Photographer: Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo

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By Alan Bjerga and Bennett Roth

July 12, 2015 at 1:00 PM UTC

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In the first quarter of 2015, the number of organizations lobbying the federal government about the Cuban embargo doubled from the previous three months. Senate records show that in the wake of President Obama announcing the normalization of diplomatic relations with Havana, dozens of organizations—ranging from Marriott International to Royal Caribbean Cruises to Major League Baseball—rushed to send representatives to talk to members of Congress about repealing sanctions enacted against Fidel Castro’s communist regime by President Kennedy in 1962.

They were late to the party. Farmers have actively lobbied against the embargo since before 2000, when Congress passed legislation allowing humanitarian exports of agriculture and medicine. U.S. farming accounted for nearly half of all entities lobbying on Cuba from 2003-05. When hostility from the George W. Bush administration dried up exports, farmers continued their quest to end the embargo.