[hkt]

Foreign currency the US is Cuba's most logical export market. So, with a shortfall of dollars/etc, importing things is problematic. So Cuba's reliance on importing food - especially from the US - looks like a spiral: eating today taking precedence over planting etc.

I don't know as much about this next part, but seeds are also harder to import. I'd hazard a guess at there not being much capacity in that market unless you're buying from Monsanto or the like, which seems not to be an option in Cuba as those (American) companies are not exempt from the embargo, unlike exporters of food and medical supplies.

[kgwgk]

It’s funny how Monsanto is such an evil company [*] that it harms so many countries when it sells to them - and Cuba when it can’t.

[*] According to many people, I’m not talking about the parent comment.

[pixl97]

Two things seemingly in opposition can be true.

[hkt]

The answer here is "monsanto is a de facto monopoly" - they're essentially the only company on earth that this kind of business can be done with on any kind of scale.

A decent intro to Monsanto (now Bayer, really) that covers some elements of their monopolistic behaviour: https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/home-garden/monsanto

tl;dr, there is a monopoly, and america decides if that monopoly can do business with Cuba