One of the big propaganda slogans for the 10 million ton campaign was "LOS DIEZ MILLONES VAN."

Nearly 40 years later, one might say:
"LOS DIEZ MILLONES VAN.
A MIAMI."

That's a great point that you bring up and its a good example of how utterly derelict the mainstream media is when it comes to Cuba. They are doing nothing more than shilling for the tyranny.

In Reinaldo Arena's "Before Night Falls" the late, great author says that Castro broke the backbone of the Cuban economy when he came up with the harebrained idea of LA SAFRA DE LOS 20,000,000 [The harvest of the 20,000,000]. Arenas says that this was a technical impossibility. Not only was every bit of energy put into producing 20,000,000 tons of sugar [including the shipping of necessary office workers and professionals to the countryside], but ancient fruit producing trees [that were a vital part of the economy] were fell by the thousands and old forest area was cleared without a single thought of the destruction to the ecology. So that comment by AP that they aren't producing so much sugar now because much of the land is now devoted to forest and farming IS an absolute and UTTER LIE, an intent to make castro appear like an ecologically minded leader who is also an agrarian reformer that distributed land to farmers.

By the way, Reinaldo Arenas, also, says that it was heartbreaking to see how many animals died as old forest areas were cleared and burnt for the sake of castro's caprice!

Pre-1959, as you point out, rsnlk, Cuba was producing more sugar than it does today and this was done without the clearing of vital forest area or without the destruction of thousands of old fruit bearing trees.