US Role in Haitian Food Crisis

30 Years Ago Haiti Grew All the Rice It Needed. What Happened?The U.S. Role in Haiti's Food Riots
By Bill Quigley
Riots in Haiti over explosive rises in food costs have claimed the lives of six people. There have also been food riots world-wide in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
The Economist, which calls the current crisis "the silent tsunami," reports that last year wheat prices rose 77 percent and rice 16 percent, but since January rice prices have risen 141 percent. The reasons include rising fuel costs, weather problems, increased demand in China and India, as well as the push to create biofuels from cereal crops.
Hermite Joseph, a mother working in the markets of Port-au-Prince, told journalist Nick Whalen that her two kids are “like toothpicks” because they’re not getting enough nourishment. "Before, if you had $1.25, you could buy vegetables, some rice, 10 cents worth of charcoal and a little cooking oil. Right now, a little can of rice alone costs 65 cents, and is not good rice at all. Oil is 25 cents. Charcoal is 25 cents. With $1.25, you can’t even make a plate of rice for one child.”
The St. Claire’s Church Food program, in the Tiplas Kazo neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, serves 1000 free meals a day, almost all to hungry children – five times a week in partnership with the What If Foundation. Children from Cité Soleil have been known to walk the five miles to the church for a meal. The cost of rice, beans, vegetables, a little meat, spices, cooking oil, propane for the stoves, have gone up dramatically. Because of the rise in the cost of food, the portions are now smaller. But hunger is on the rise and more and more children come for the free meal. Hungry adults used to be allowed to eat the leftovers once all the children were fed, but now there are few leftovers.
The New York Times lectured Haiti on April 18 that “Haiti, its agriculture industry in shambles, needs to better feed itself.” Unfortunately, the article did not talk at all about one of the main causes of the shortages -- the fact that the U.S. and other international financial bodies destroyed Haitian rice farmers to create a major market for the heavily subsidized rice from U.S. farmers. This is not the only cause of hunger in Haiti and otherpoor countries, but it is a major force.
Thirty years ago, Haiti raised nearly all the rice it needed. What happened?
In 1986, after the expulsion of Haitian dictator Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loaned Haiti $24.6 million in desperately needed funds (Baby Doc had raided the treasury on the way out). But, in order to get the IMF loan, Haiti was required to reduce tariff protections for their Haitian rice and other agricultural products and some industries to open up the country’s markets to competition from outside countries. The U.S. has by far the largest voice in decisions of the IMF.
Doctor Paul Farmer was in Haiti then and saw what happened. “Within less than two years, it became impossible for Haitian farmers to compete with what they called ‘Miami rice.’ The whole local rice market in Haiti fell apart as cheap, U.S. subsidized rice, some of it in the form of ‘food aid,’ flooded the market. There was violence, ‘rice wars,’ and lives were lost.”
“American rice invaded the country,” recalled Charles Suffrard, a leading rice grower in Haiti in an interview with the Washington Post in 2000. By 1987 and 1988, there was so much rice coming into the country that many stopped working the land.
Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, a Haitian priest who has been the pastor at St. Claire and an outspoken human rights advocate, agrees. “In the 1980s, imported rice poured into Haiti, below the cost of what our farmers could produce it. Farmers lost their businesses. People from the countryside started losing their jobs and moving to the cities. After a few years of cheap imported rice, local production went way down.”
Still the international business community was not satisfied. In 1994, as a condition for U.S. assistance in returning to Haiti to resume his elected Presidency, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced by the U.S., the IMF, and the World Bank to open up the markets in Haiti even more.
But, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, what reason could the U.S. have in destroying the rice market of this tiny country?
Haiti is definitely poor. The U.S. Agency for International Development reports the annual per capita income is less than $400. The United Nations reports life expectancy in Haiti is 59, while in the US it is 78. Over 78% of Haitians live on less than $2 a day, more than half live on less than $1 a day.
Yet Haiti has become one of the very top importers of rice from the U.S. The U.S. Department of Agriculture 2008 numbers show Haiti is the third largest importer of US rice - at over 240,000 metric tons of rice. (One metric ton is 2200 pounds).
Rice is a heavily subsidized business in the U.S. Rice subsidies in the U.S. totaled $11 billion from 1995 to 2006. One producer alone, Riceland Foods Inc. of Stuttgart, Arkansas, received over $500 million dollars in rice subsidies between 1995 and 2006.
The Cato Institute recently reported that rice is one of the most heavily supported commodities in the U.S. -- with three different subsidies together averaging over $1 billion a year since 1998 and projected to average over $700 million a year through 2015. The result? “Tens of millions of rice farmers in poor countries find it hard to lift their families out of poverty because of the lower, more volatile prices caused by the interventionist policies of other countries.”
In addition to three different subsidies for rice farmers in the U.S., there are also direct tariff barriers of 3 to 24 percent, reports Daniel Griswold of the Cato Institute -- the exact same type of protections, though much higher, that the U.S. and the IMF required Haiti to eliminate in the 1980s and 1990s.
U.S. protection for rice farmers goes even further. A 2006 story in the Washington Post found that the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all; including $490,000 to a Houston surgeon who owned land near Houston that once grew rice.
And it is not only the Haitian rice farmers who have been hurt.
Paul Farmer saw it happen to the sugar growers as well. “Haiti, once the world's largest exporter of sugar and other tropical produce to Europe, began importing even sugar-- from U.S. controlled sugar production in the Dominican Republic and Florida. It was terrible to see Haitian farmers put out of work. All this sped up the downward spiral that led to this month's food riots.”
After the riots and protests, President Rene Preval of Haiti agreed to reduce the price of rice, which was selling for $51 for a 110 pound bag, to $43 dollars for the next month. No one thinks a one month fix will do anything but delay the severe hunger pains a few weeks.
Haiti is far from alone in this crisis. The Economist reports a billion people worldwide live on $1 a day. The US-backed Voice of America reports about 850 million people were suffering from hunger worldwide before the latest round of price increases.
Thirty three countries are at risk of social upheaval because of rising food prices, World Bank President Robert Zoellick told the Wall Street Journal. When countries have many people who spend half to three-quarters of their daily income on food, “there is no margin of survival.”
In the U.S., people are feeling the world-wide problems at the gas pump and in the grocery. Middle class people may cut back on extra trips or on high price cuts of meat. The number of people on food stamps in the US is at an all-time high. But in poor countries, where malnutrition and hunger were widespread before the rise in prices, there is nothing to cut back on except eating. That leads to hunger riots.
In the short term, the world community is sending bags of rice to Haiti. Venezuela sent 350 tons of food. The US just pledged $200 million extra for worldwide hunger relief. The UN is committed to distributing more food.
What can be done in the medium term? The US provides much of the world’s food aid, but does it in such a way that only half of the dollars spent actually reach hungry people. US law requires that food aid be purchased from US farmers, processed and bagged in the US and shipped on US vessels -- which cost 50% of the money allocated. A simple change in US law to allow some local purchase of commodities would feed many more people and support local farm markets.
In the long run, what is to be done? The President of Brazil, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who visited Haiti last week, said “Rich countries need to reduce farms subsidies and trade barriers to allow poor countries to generate income with food exports. Either the world solves the unfair trade system, or every time there's unrest like in Haiti, we adopt emergency measures and send a little bit of food to temporarily ease hunger."
Citizens of the USA know very little about the role of their government in helping create the hunger problems in Haiti or other countries. But there is much that individuals can do. People can donate to help feed individual hungry people and participate with advocacy organizations like Bread for the World or Oxfam to help change the U.S. and global rules which favor the rich countries. This advocacy can help countries have a better chance to feed themselves.
Meanwhile, Merisma Jean-Claudel, a young high school graduate in Port-au-Prince told journalist Wadner Pierre "...people can’t buy food. Gasoline prices are going up. It is very hard for us over here. The cost of living is the biggest worry for us, no peace in stomach means no peace in the mind. I wonder if others will be able to survive the days ahead because things are very, very hard."
“On the ground, people are very hungry,” reported Fr. Jean-Juste. “Our country must immediately open emergency canteens to feed the hungry until we can get them jobs. For the long run, we need to invest in irrigation, transportation, and other assistance for our farmers and workers.”
In Port-au-Prince, some rice arrived in the last few days. A school in Fr. Jean-Juste’s parish received several bags of rice. They had raw rice for 1000 children, but the principal still had to come to Father Jean-Juste asking for help. There was no money for charcoal, or oil.
Jervais Rodman, an unemployed carpenter with three children, stood in a long line Saturday in Port-au-Prince to get UN donated rice and beans. When Rodman got the small bags, he told Ben Fox of the Associated Press, “The beans might last four days. The rice will be gone as soon as I get home.”
Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans. He can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com People interested in donating to feed children in Haiti should go to http://www.whatiffoundation.org/
People who want to help change U.S. policy on agriculture to help combat world-wide hunger should go to: http://www.oxfamamerica.org/ or http://www.bread.org/.
[published April 2008]

BBC NEWS | Americas | Hungry mob attacks Haiti palace

BBC NEWS Americas Hungry mob attacks Haiti palace

The situation is getting worse in Haiti right now. Hunger and soaring prices are driving the people to desperation.

BBC NEWS | Americas | View from Haiti: Aid worker

BBC NEWS Americas View from Haiti: Aid worker

Excellent very recent article from an aid worker in northwest Haiti. Desperation is starting to set in. Remember the mission and the country of Haiti in your prayers.

Day 7 continued - The orphange

We finished eating at Jerry's about 1:00. The orphanage is only one block away. It houses about 150 kids and is a two level building with 3 wings forming a sort of "U" shape and an open courtyard in the middle with a playground. The kids range from 6 to 18. The kids absolutely swarmed us. It was a little intimidating at first but they get so little one on one attention you can understand it. The 150 kids are split into 5 different "families" each headed up by a Haitian couple. These couples are truly giving everything for the Lord and these kids. Can you imagine being the parent for 30 orphans?! These couples need your prayers!

After we got settled, we gave our VBS skit one last time :(. It went very well and the kids enjoyed it. After VBS, we tood the kids swimming in the ocean. This was turn out to be another of those "Haiti" moments that will forever by burned into my memory.

So many ironies stuck home again. To get the two blocks to the ocean, we and the kids walked through a garbage strewn alley to get to the "beach". Keep in mind the view is spectacular. The beach itself is narrow, with the gutted, decayed buildings that squatters occupy right up against it. The sand is black / gray and absolutely littered with garbage and broken glass and flies swarming about. A pig was tied up on the beach and had no shortage of garbage to consume. Some of what pigs leave behind was seen as well. Several of the kids peed right after getting the water. Some had suits, some didn't.

The water appeared clear but the bottom had a very large concrete "shelf" submerged there and several other obstacles underneath. Only Neal (from our group) and Curtis Rogers from the mission dared to get in with about 50 of the kids. The kids were having a blast.

Later that night, Penny made a tearful comment that struck like a hammer. When she got to the beach and saw these kids running barefoot through the garbage and glass. She imagined it was her 5 year old son and said she wanted to rush out and pick up every one of these kids and keep them safe.

I had not thought of that while I was there and I feel SO guilty for not noticing that. We are no better! My kids are no more important than these kids! Yet my mind is creating this unconscious "seperation" that keeps me from fully understanding these conditions and empathizing with these people, our fellow children of God.

I pray for this "seperation" to go away.

After returning to the orphanage, we handed out peanut butter sandwiches and gift bags for the kids. The little ones were especially excited. My wife Lisa spent a good deal of time talking to Tigans, who is sponsored by one of the families in our church. A very bright, intelligent boy. He is almost 18 and soon will leave the orphange and enter the world.

We left the orphange about 4:00 and made the last trip to St Louis du Nord. After returing we started our final packing preparations as we would leave at 4:30 am to head into Port de Paix to the airport. We ate pizza for supper. I didn't like it and ate little. At 7:00 our group gathered for our final nightly devotions. Each person got up and shared our highlights, feelings, and things learned from our time here. MANY laughs were had and MANY tears were shed. It was awesome.

For me, it is the "images" I will never forget: the "miracle" at Le Bay as we ministered to over 300. The lifting up of 50 simultaneous prayers from the workers at the mission each morning to heaven and marvelling at how God hears and responds to each one of us. Walking down by the ocean delivering food to the utterly destitute. The image of the poor old lady bent over like a crab. The joyful praise of Sunday morning.

All of these great memories involved praising God and obeying his command to love one another. Living as Jesus would and did!

Why, why, why is it so hard to this on a daily basis in our lives!? Lord, please help me to keep my eyes and heart open.

Day 7 - the orphange in Port de Paix

Well here it is. Our last full day in Haiti. My emotions are SO bittersweet. I really miss my 3 kids and want to see them so badly. Yet I have treasured every minute here. Despite the difficulties encountered, I love this country and its people. What makes it truly awesome is that our group of 14 has spent the entire week serving the Lord and not ourselves. Why is this so HARD to practice at home?! All the work deadlines, the cell phone ringing, the bill paying, the upkeep of everything distracts us. These are perhaps Satan's greatest tools against us in the supposedly "developed" world.

Woke up at 6:30, my third straight night of really good sleep. Man, I am actually going to miss those roosters! What a great way to wake up, really (I believe I am in the minority on that). I thought it was cool anyway.

The morning pace was a bit slower as we wouldn't be leaving for Port de Paix until 9:00. Our first stop would be to visit Waves of Mercy, a home and mission for street boys started last year by the former director of NWHCM, Larry Owen. After that we would visit the childrens orphanage in Port de Paix. Once again, we had 20 people crammed on the bed of the pickup as we headed out. One of our group became sick on the way there and shortly after we got there. She never complained though. She is a strong woman with a strong emotional makeup. My wife and I really appreciated getting to know her better. We just hadn't interacted much before the trip and travelled in different circles.

After the usual one hour + bump and jump to Port de Paix we stopped at the home of a Haitian doctor and friend of the mission who had provided a home for Larry now that we was no longer with NWHCM. Larry took us from there to the far end of Port de Paix, right before Trois Rivieres. Here was the home for 12 of the orphan boys ages 8-16 or so. They lived with Fritz, who grew up in the NWHCM orphanage and now worked with Larry to help these kids. The boys go out and do odd jobs during the day such as washing vehicles (mostly mopeds and tap-taps) to earn a little money. But now instead of sleeping on the streets, they had a place to go. They are fed nightly and once they return to the mission to eat, they cannot go back out til morning.

Larry told the story of one boy there who was about 14 and had been sleeping on porches in the area at night. One night the people of the house whose porch he was sleeping on caught him, threw kerosene on his legs him and lit him, burning him badly. It makes me sick to think someone could do that to another human.

They also had started church services. The previous Sunday they had 93 people attend, their highest ever. Larry then took us on a 30 minute walk from the house to the river and back. We were swarmed by neighborhood kids as usual. One boy of 7 or 8 named Vladimir stuck with me. He is the boy in the yellow shirt in front of me in the photo above. He was a precious boy and reminded me of my sons, which only deepened my wanting to see them.

We walked past the roadside market sellers selling food, charcoal, booze, and second hand clothes. Another dusty, smoky, fetid street. We left at 11:30 to eat by the ocean next to the orphanage at a restaurant called Jerry's. It was an open air restaurant with a GORGEOUS view. I have attached a photo of the view here. We were the only ones there. The usual fare, rice and beans, fish, some soggy fries. The food wasn't great but the view was! I talked a good deal with Henry again. I am going to miss him the most of the people we met there. Such a godly young man. We hope to be able to fly him to the States at some point. We''ll see.

Next up, the orphanage.

Day 6 continued - Face to face with Haiti's harsh reality.

After lunch a small group of us accompanied Maureen on a brief trip down the street outside the mission to visit a family with 3 blind members. Maureen wanted to make sure they were getting along and if they needed any help. The house was small, messy, stale, and dark. It had 2 rooms, better than some there. It was very humbling to see the grinding poverty of their everyday life. And 90% of Haitians are in similar circumstances.

Along the way we were swarmed by several kids, including a few older ones who were very persistant in asking for dollars. They weren't rude, but they were persistant, which made in a little tough to just enjoy their company.

It really is hard NOT to give out a dollar to these kids but the missionaries were very clear that it is a bad message to sen to these kids. They are right of course. The mission has feeding programs for these kids and any others of need. We were told the mission feeds 2000 per day. But perhaps the wisest goal of NWHCM is to try and give a hand up to these people, not just a hand out. Handing out money would never be enough and it would not foster a work ethic among these kids. In all ways, this mission has the people of Haiti in their best interests!

At 4:00 we got togther another group for a walk down to the shut-ins of St Louis du Nord, led by Seramone. About 10 of us went down to the city. The images I saw I will never forget. The crushing, filthy, and abject poverty these poor souls survive in....my mind can't even start to comprehend.

The third stop was down by the ocean through a stinking, smoking, filthy day market. The oceanside is where the poorest of poor live (so opposite the USA!). The building by the ocean are crumbling and un-owned, thus providing shelter for the squatters. One of the ladies we stopped and gave rice and beans to was missing half a leg and sitting on a filthy stool. Her shack had holes everywhere and a torn blanket for a door. A couple of rats were by the doorway. Just after we stopped there a woman who was literally bent over and walking like a crab came up for her food. She couln't have been more than 3 feet tall anymore. She was literally bent over in half and walking with her feet wide apart like a crab. We were told she had Mott's Disease, essentially TB set into the spinal column. TB eats away the spinal stucture, thus causing the severe disability. It is unheard of in the states and entirely treatable, though too late for this women. I wanted to take a picture but I couldn't bring myself to patronize her like that. My heart breaks for her.

The alleys and market nearby are filthy and smell of smoke, rot, and urine. EVERYTHING is the image of poverty: the destitute charcoal sellers, trash everywhere, run-down decrepit building everywhere that were homes to these people. Rancid water running in rivlets everywhere you look. Dried fish, meat, and veggies for sale, covered with flies and fermenting in the heat. People in worn out clothing all with a look of quiet desperation.

Dave Simmmons had a great point during devotions! Even though we directly fed only 12 or so that afternoon, we were seen representing Jesus to countless others. Sometimes it seems like we can only do so little. But the important thing is to be the hands and feet of Christ!

After dinner, I was emotionally and physically exhausted. Lisa and I hadn't had any alone time in days to we both went up to the tent about 8:30. It was good to to be able to share our experiences with each other. Unfortunately the wind was very strong again that night and we slept in the "dorms".

I got up for prayer time about 1:45. At first I prayed outside, the voodoo drums and chanting present but definitely farther away this time. The wind often drowned them out. It was downright chilly with the wind. I slept well that night, until 6:30, the latest on our trip.

Up next, Day 7, our last full day.

Day 6 Ansefoleur

Well, I woke up this morning and got a Valentines card from my very thoughtful wife. Her not very thoughtful husband did not have a card :( It slipped my mind in all the preperation until we were already in Haiti. There is a severe shortage of Hallmark stores in Haiti!

I felt so bad for her because I could tell it stung her some. She really deserved better from me. She is a WONDERFUL wife.

We had an early morning today. Breakfast was served and then we left at 7:45 for VBS at the school in Ansefoleur, about 10-12 miles east of St Louis du Nord. After the VBS, we were to have a prayer time at a spot called Voodoo Mountain a former voodoo sacred hill just outside of Ansefoleur.

Our morning got off to a rough start as just outside the mission, our tire started going flat. We stopped on the edge of the road in the town square and had it repaired by a roadside tire vendor. It took him a lot of mud scraping to find the source of the flat so we were delayed 30-40 minutes.

Of all the rough roads we travelled, this was the most brutal. The roads, if you want to call them that were atrocious. There were 18 of us sitting on the bed of the truck along with 6 (100lb) bags of rice and beans. We were jostled and bumped something fierce! It was the most scenic drive we had as well. Shortly after crossing the river where the market sets up we were going through Laforge and drove up to a huge, deep, long, wide waterhole. There was no way around it, only through it!

Everyone held their feet up and the diesel started chugging through. Very soon, water started filling up the bed of the truck as we were driving through nearly 4 feet of water. Right in the middle he got held up momentarily on a rock and we thought we would stall our and be wading through the muck for sure. But steadily the driver drove through and out of the mudhole. We immediately stopped to let water out of the cab and bed of the truck! We Michiganders think we have pothole problems. We got nothing on Haiti!

The remainder of the 70 minute drive was through gorgeous countryside up and down cliffs along the ocean. The view was spectacular! The road was not so we had PLENTY of time to soak in the sights.

We arrived in Ansefoleur about 9:30. It is a beautiful little town, hard by the ocean across from the far east tip of Tortuga. The school was well run and we presented the program to 100 kids ages 8-10. It went very well. The kids were very excited and well behaved. They really liked the program. Once again, Roland led them in a raucous worship song time to get them fired up.

Before we left for Haiti i had wondered "why VBS programs"? I thought there were much better ways to serve than this. However, I now understood how important this was. The kids (and Gran Moun) really responded to it and it showed them that God is the Father of the white man and the black man. All men are equal and we are here to serve and praise him! We had touched over 700 kids, the future of Haiti. Thank you God for allowing me to be part of this!

The ride back was equally uncomfortable to seemed a bit quicker and the water hole a bit shallower, though we had to stop again to drain water out of the cab and bed of the truck. After we got back, Mom, Lisa, and I had dish duty.

That afternoon I made a couple of brief sojourns into St Louis du Nord that I won't forget! That's up next.