We Are Paying The Price

Does Haiti have food to feed the country? is one the most frequent questions that i have been asked for the last eighteen months. People asked me this question because they had heard the Haitian children are starving to death. Food has become a major problem throughout Haiti. The national production has decreased seriously because of so many issues: infrastructure,foreign food importation and displacing farmers from the country sides to the capital,Port-au-Prince.

I have seen an enormous raise in the food prices over the last twelve years. I remember when i was younger, my mother used to complain about the prices of rice,corn;beans,wheat and sugar. But Haitians are very strong people;therefore, they cope with any situation that comes through. As the national food production goes down,foreign food invades the Haitian food market tremendously. For instance, it is cheaper to buy rice from overseas than the Haitian rice. But the majority of the population still cannot afford to buy food because they live with less than $2 US a day.

The country spends millions of dollars buying food from overseas especially from the Dominican Republic and the United States. The U.S. has been subsidizing the American rice farmers to keep the price of rice low so they can import rice into Haiti whereas they do not assist the Haitian farmers. Is this a good policy? I don't think the U.S. is helping Haiti to boost its economy and increase the food production in Haiti. As a Haitian, i have never had chance to eat the Haitian rice as much as i used to eat the American rice because my mother could not afford our country’s rice. I think it would be better if the U.S. helps Haiti overcome this situation by helping the Haitian farmers. There is plenty of rice and beans in Haiti,but most of them are from overseas especial the U.S. However,Haiti is a country with foreign food,but a population with no money.

The question is, does the U.S. have a plan to help end this problem in Haiti? About three decades ago, Haiti used to produce enough food to feed its population. But now the Haitian bellies rely on tons of food that’s coming from overseas. We are paying the price of a policy that has been in place for years. It’s time for change to come before it gets worse. Haiti cannot continue to pay such a price. Nou grangou=we are hungry!