After the earthquake in Haiti smashed markets, collapsed warehouses/buildings, and left more than 2.5 million people without enough to eat, the U.S. has aided the victims in Haiti with food, especially rice. Inexpensive imports, especially rice from the U.S. has destroyed local agriculture and left Haiti unable to feed themselves. As the U.S. has been importing cheap rice and other foods to Haiti, it has resulted in a lack of investment in Haitian farming. Furthermore, this has devastated farmers because they are unable to produce agriculture. For the Haitians, "near-total dependence on imported foods has been a disaster. Haiti's government is also asking for 722 million for agriculture to fix the estimated 31 million of quake damage to agriculture, but mainly for projects restoring Haiti's watersheds to improve irrigation and infrastructure.
The policies stated earlier were led by Bill Clinton. He publicly apologized this month for the policies that destroyed Haiti's rice production. He stated, "I had to live every everyday with the consequences of the loss of capacity to produce a rice crop in Haiti to feed those people because of what I did; nobody else." However, now Clinton and Bush are leading U.S. fundraising for Haiti.
Wow. I never knew that sending food, such as rice to a country in need would actually create negative effects, but now I understand how the importing of food into Haiti has devastated farmers and their agriculture. I also like how Clinton apologized for his mistake, and is now fixing it and doing more to help Haiti.
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Haitian managed NGO Organizations like oreworld.org have been promoting agriculture in Haiti for 25 years. They are currently distributing high protein corn seed and developing organic dried mango markets. They have helped farmers increase yields by 500%. Since the earthquake they have been using donations to buy Haiti Produce which is then distributed. Thus there is a double impact--feeding evacuees and creating rural employment in areas where people are returning to the country.
This reminds me of Ariana's article about how helping Haiti can actually hurt it. The earthquake was a terrible thing that happened to Haiti, I believe the country is able to regain stability sometime in the near future with the aid of other countries. Although, this article proves how providing too much help can take away Haiti's independence. I think the mission of promoting agriculture, such as rice, in Haiti is a great step forward to helping Haiti get back on its feet.
How does the saying go?
Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. But teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime.
The emergency aid was great, and I don't think anyone should apologize for providing food to victims of the immediate aftermath. But there comes a time when the feeding tube just has to be removed, and the patient be allowed to stand on his/her own two feet.
As I mentioned earlier, the food donations were great, but only in the short run. In the long run, creating lasting industries would be an even better service to the enduring Haitians (I see Haiti as a potential tourist hotspot with proper investment).
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