Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt

[Mr. Authority]

By JONATHAN M. KATZ
Associated Press Writer

The hand of a woman is covered in mud as she makes mud cookies on the roof of Fort Dimanche, once a prison, in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Nov. 30, 2007. Rising prices and food shortages threaten the nation's fragile stability, and the mud cookies, made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening, are one of very few options the poorest people have to stave off hunger.
Ariana Cubillos / AP Photo
The hand of a woman is covered in mud as she makes mud cookies on the roof of Fort Dimanche, once a prison, in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Nov. 30, 2007. Rising prices and food shortages threaten the nation's fragile stability, and the mud cookies, made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening, are one of very few options the poorest people have to stave off hunger.


It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

"When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said. Her baby, named Woodson, lay still across her lap, looking even thinner than the slim 6 pounds 3 ounces he weighed at birth.

Though she likes their buttery, salty taste, Charlene said the cookies also give her stomach pains. "When I nurse, the baby sometimes seems colicky too," she said.

Food prices around the world have spiked because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation and transportation. Prices for basic ingredients such as corn and wheat are also up sharply, and the increasing global demand for biofuels is pressuring food markets as well.

The problem is particularly dire in the Caribbean, where island nations depend on imports and food prices are up 40 percent in places.

The global price hikes, together with floods and crop damage from the 2007 hurricane season, prompted the U.N. Food and Agriculture Agency to declare states of emergency in Haiti and several other Caribbean countries. Caribbean leaders held an emergency summit in December to discuss cutting food taxes and creating large regional farms to reduce dependence on imports.

At the market in the La Saline slum, two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents, up 10 cents from December and 50 percent from a year ago. Beans, condensed milk and fruit have gone up at a similar rate, and even the price of the edible clay has risen over the past year by almost $1.50. Dirt to make 100 cookies now costs $5, the cookie makers say.

Still, at about 5 cents apiece, the cookies are a bargain compared to food staples. About 80 percent of people in Haiti live on less than $2 a day and a tiny elite controls the economy.

Merchants truck the dirt from the central town of Hinche to the La Saline market, a maze of tables of vegetables and meat swarming with flies. Women buy the dirt, then process it into mud cookies in places such as Fort Dimanche, a nearby shanty town.

Carrying buckets of dirt and water up ladders to the roof of the former prison for which the slum is named, they strain out rocks and clumps on a sheet, and stir in shortening and salt. Then they pat the mixture into mud cookies and leave them to dry under the scorching sun.

The finished cookies are carried in buckets to markets or sold on the streets.

A reporter sampling a cookie found that it had a smooth consistency and sucked all the moisture out of the mouth as soon as it touched the tongue. For hours, an unpleasant taste of dirt lingered.

Assessments of the health effects are mixed. Dirt can contain deadly parasites or toxins, but can also strengthen the immunity of fetuses in the womb to certain diseases, said Gerald N. Callahan, an immunology professor at Colorado State University who has studied geophagy, the scientific name for dirt-eating.

Haitian doctors say depending on the cookies for sustenance risks malnutrition.

"Trust me, if I see someone eating those cookies, I will discourage it," said Dr. Gabriel Thimothee, executive director of Haiti's health ministry.

Marie Noel, 40, sells the cookies in a market to provide for her seven children. Her family also eats them.

"I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these," she said. "I know it's not good for me."

Poor Haitians resort to eating dirt - 01/29/2008 - MiamiHerald.com

How could the developed world allow this to happen to Haiti, especially the American and French governments? Just damn.

[Sweetie]

Okay so a 16 year old girl knew she was starving and had to eat dirt but yet she still decided to bring another life into this world. I don't feel sorry for her at all.

[Dixie Normos]

There are probably more nutriants in the soil than there is in a Big Mac...I've heard pregnant women sometimes crave clay, something about the zinc content.

[Butterfly]

People with low iron crave dirt, and it does probably have more nutrients than a big mac.

[Dixie Normos]

Huh. I used to eat sand as a kid. What (other than insanity) does that mean?

[Butterfly]

That you were a kid... I used to eat my grandmas dog's food .

[Quazar]

I used to eat Milk Bones when I was little. They're actually made by Nabisco and harmless but I thought my mother was going to have a stroke.

Too bad about having mud to eat though.

[Sojiita]

This is sad and sick.

At the market in the La Saline slum, two cups of rice now sell for 60 cents, up 10 cents from December and 50 percent from a year ago. Beans, condensed milk and fruit have gone up at a similar rate, and even the price of the edible clay has risen over the past year by almost $1.50. Dirt to make 100 cookies now costs $5, the cookie makers say.



6o cents for two cups of rice? It is cheaper HERE!


And I agree..the 16 year old should not have gotten pregnant..still it is not the childs fault.WHOOPS!!!! never mind!! I do not want to be playing the 'kiddie card'

[Just Kill Me]

Originally Posted by Sweetie

Okay so a 16 year old girl knew she was starving and had to eat dirt but yet she still decided to bring another life into this world. I don't feel sorry for her at all.

Yeah, it kind of makes you wonder what resources for birth control and what not are available to her... shit if they're eating dirt.
This is quite sad and disgusting.

[Dixie Normos]

Originally Posted by Quazar

I used to eat Milk Bones when I was little. They're actually made by Nabisco and harmless but I thought my mother was going to have a stroke.

Too bad about having mud to eat though.

Dammit, I ate those too! Was there anything safe from Mightymouth?

[Sweetie]

Originally Posted by Just Kill Me

Yeah, it kind of makes you wonder what resources for birth control and what not are available to her... shit if they're eating dirt.

Even if they don't have bc and such, they know what gets you pregnant and therefore should just stop it all together. I for one think I could go without sex if I knew that I stood the chance of having a child that would starve to death.

Oh and Soj, no it isn't the child's fault yet.....that will take about 16 years for that to happen. I am sure the child will continue the cycle.

[Just Kill Me]

First and foremost we are animals... anyway, I'm not going to get into the whole she shouldn't be having children thing. It is disgusting that with all that we have that there are people eating dirt to survive.

[Butterfly]

And with being animals the strong survive and the weak die. The problem with these countries is that they have had to much help that they can't take care of themselves anymore. We'll be there to help but it is never enough if they don't start helping themselves.

[Sojiita]

Originally Posted by Sweetie

Even if they don't have bc and such, they know what gets you pregnant and therefore should just stop it all together. I for one think I could go without sex if I knew that I stood the chance of having a child that would starve to death.

Oh and Soj, no it isn't the child's fault yet.....that will take about 16 years for that to happen. I am sure the child will continue the cycle.

I was just being an ass about something in another thread..nevermind.


*how do they even stay fertile being so malnourished and fricken' eating DIRT? How?

[Just Kill Me]

Haiti has gotten too much help? Anyway, I don't care right now about people making poor choices and how their situation is their own damn fault. It just doesn't make any sense to me how there are people starving ANYWHERE in the world this day and age.
Survival of the fittest... I will no longer be making any donations to the Humane Society or SNAP... fuck it.