Former Cuban President and leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro spent more than four hours with 19 cheese masters at an auditorium of a research institute belonging to the Food Industry Ministry.
This was Castro's first public appearance since he interacted with Venezuelan students about three months ago in April, according to The Telegraph.
Official media images show Castro wearing a white windbreaker, plaid shirt and gray pants, The Huffington Post reports.
"This Friday afternoon, Fidel conversed for more than four hours with 19 master cheese makers who are taking an advanced course at the Food Industry Research Institute of the Food Industry Ministry, or MINAL, in the town of Guatao," a note published by the official press said.
The veteran leader who turns 89 in August shared his views on "frequent wars" over food, which he opined was a result of climate change, according to Latino Fox News. The panel, which included Food Industry Minister Maria del Carmen Concepcion Gonzalez, members of the board of directors and the business group of that ministry along with board members of the Food Industry Research Institute and its professors discussed the need to raise the production and quality levels of Cuba's cheese industry to those that existed before the "Special Period" in Cuba during the 1990s when the Soviet Bloc fell.
The front pages of Granma and Juventud Rebelde, the nation's leading dailies, reported that, "Several participants of vast experience, trained in those years and who are still working, addressed the meeting and explained to Fidel the steps being taken to gradually reach those production levels while maintaining the necessary quality."
Castro's public appearance on Friday came a couple of days after the announcement of the agreement for the renewal of diplomatic relations and the reopening of embassies between Cuba and the United States, which is scheduled to happen on July 20.
Castro stepped down due to illness in 2006, provisionally, and in 2008, definitively handing over power to his younger brother Raul, 84. Apart from writing an occasional newspaper column, Fidel receives dignitaries at home. His role and involvement in policy-making remains unknown.
