Fidel Castro visits food laboratory: official media

Former top Cuban leader Fidel Castro on Friday visited the Research Institute of the Food Industry in the outskirts of Havana, government daily Granma reported Saturday.

Castro, 88, attended a meeting of experts from the cheese industry on Friday afternoon and "had an extensive exchange of views for more than four hours with 19 cheese masters," said the report, illustrated with four photos of the "historic leader" of the Cuban Revolution.

The pictures showed Castro, facing the audience, sitting at a table and accompanied by the minister of food industry.

According to the report, Castro was active at the meeting, and addressed the impact of climate change on the food industry as well as frequent wars worldwide.

The revolutionary veteran stressed the need for Cuba to recover the production and quality levels the country achieved in the manufacturing of cheese in past decades, said the report.

Castro was most recently shown by the press on June 21 when he was visited by Venezuelan parliament speaker Diosdado Cabello.

Castro led a two-year guerrilla war to overthrow then Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista on Jan. 1, 1959.

In June 2006, a serious disease forced him to hand over power to his younger brother Raul Castro, the current Cuban president.

Since then the former leader, who is to turn 89 on Aug. 13 this year, has devoted himself to writing books and opinion articles on world affairs. Endi