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Haitians Forced to Eat Dirt
Two cups of rice for 60 cents may sound like a drop in the bucket to the citizens of developed countries, but in Haiti where approximately 80 percent of the population lives off less than $2 a day, it’s a desperate situation. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency declared states of emergency in several Caribbean countries including Haiti. Food prices have skyrocketed up to 40 percent in some areas due to a spike in global prices and crop damage from the 2007 hurricane season. Higher oil prices, fertilizer need, irrigation and transportation problems are blamed for the recent trend in global food price. The growing demand for biofuels is not helping. Crops being converted to ethanol production are putting a severe damper on exports of food and increasing food prices. (See Food Scarcity Continued) For the people of Haiti this spells a future of famine and starvation. The 60 cents it now costs for two cups of rice is up 10 cents from December and 50 cents from a year ago. Similar rates have affected the prices of beans, condensed milk and fruit. With empty pockets and emptier stomachs, poverty stricken Haitians are resorting to the last thing you might suspect – mud. Dried yellow dirt from the country’s central plateau is trucked in and sold at market. Locals buy and haul buckets of the dirt to their local shanty towns. After straining out clumps and rocks, shortening and salt is stirred into the mud. They pat out the mixture into ‘mud cookies’ then leave them to dry in the hot sun. Enough dirt to make 100 of the cookies costs $5, or 5 cents apiece, a bargain in comparison to food staples. Charlene Dumas a 16 year old with a 1 month old son says she doesn’t mind the taste, but sometimes gets stomach pains from the cookies. “When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky too,” she adds. While the dirt can host deadly parasites and toxins, it can also strengthen immunity in fetuses to certain diseases. Local doctors say a diet of the cookies risks malnutrition. Dr. Gabriel Thimothee, executive director of Haiti’s health ministry said, “Trust me, if I see someone eating those cookies, I will discourage it." Discouraged or not, impoverished Haitians will continue to eat the mud as long as food prices continue to spiral out of control. When it comes to dirt or starvation, there’s little choice. For years the world has enjoyed an excess of foodstuffs, but now reserves of food are empty or nearly so. Prices for food continues to climb globally, exports are decreasing and demand increasing. While we might complain about the price of bread and milk these days, it is the people of the poorest nations who will suffer most. If every citizen in developed countries was forced to eat dirt for a day, or a week, perhaps something would be done about it. As for now, we arrogantly throw away our crops for our own selfish causes and ignore the daily suffering of billions. The World Food Programme has reported for the first time they aren’t able to procure the required commodities it supplies to nations in need. We are running out of food. Where is the international outcry? |
Associated Press
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This intel was contributed by The Rift
The Rift
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May, 2012
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