A small farm in Cuba, by Veebl

When you think of the transition glide path away from Cold War-era communism, the first period of reform is always economic. In Poland, it was the labor unions, in Russia it was the mass privatizations, in Yugoslavia it was the uncontrolled proliferation of privatniks and in China, private ventures are now half of the entire economy. Vietnam, too, has introduced small and medium sized capitalism.

So this report by Marc Frank of Reuters is a useful data point to confirm Cuba's glide path towards economic reform. Mr. Frank reports that 45,500 new leases of farmland have occurred over the last year or so, evidence that Cuba is turning to the private sector to handle one of its greatest challenges: feeding the Cuban people. That's the largest land distribution in Cuba since the start of the Castro government.

Of course, Cuba has a long way to go. Food is still scarce on the island after last year's hurricanes devastated one third of the productive cropland, and I am certain this program was accelerated out of the need to get more short-cycle crops in the ground to cover the storm-related shortfall. If Havana can cover its food needs, though, the next challenge will be finding the building materials still necessary to rebuild. Recent reports suggest 600,000 homes are still damaged or destroyed, which is just under a third of all houses. At this rate, Cuba will not have recovered from 2008 when the 2009 storms start to bear down in August.

Cuba is adapting to meet some serious challenges. In the midst of such change, the United States has a new opportunity to influence reforms in a positive way. The question now is whether Washington can wrap its mind around the strategic context and the economic context, integrate them and tap the opportunity.