Poor Haitians Having to Eat Dirt

Due to rising food prices, many poor people in Haiti can’t afford food and have to resort to eating mud and dirt. A traditional Haitian remedy for curing hunger pains involves making cookies from dried yellow dirt from Haiti’s central plateau. For a long time the mud has been used by pregnant women and children as an antacid and a source of calcium.

Food prices around the entire world have increased due to higher oil prices and oil is needed for fertilizer, irrigation, and transportation. The increase in demand for biofuels is also affecting the food markets. The Caribbean islands depend heavily on imported goods and food prices have risen 40 percent in some areas.

The 2007 hurricane season caused floods and crop damage so bad that the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency had to declare states of emergency in Haiti and other Caribbean countries. Leaders in the Caribbean held an emergency summit in December to talk about reducing food taxes and making large regional farms to decrease the dependence on imported goods.

The cost of the dirt isn’t free. The dirt to make 100 cookies costs $5. About 80 percent of the Haitian population lives on less than $2 per day. Merchants would bring the dirt by truck from a central town to the food market. Women would buy the dirt and then process it into mud cookies. They would have to strain out the rocks and clumps from the dirt on a sheet and stir in shortening and salt to make the cookies. The cookies would be left out in the sun to dry. Some people sell the cookies in the market or on the street to make money.

It is not safe to eat the mud cookies because dirt can have deadly parasites or toxins. The cookies can also cause malnutrition. A positive thing about the cookies though is that they can strengthen the immunity of fetuses in pregnant women.