Dirt Poor Haitians Eat Mud Cookies To Survive

The small island nation of Haiti relies heavily on food imports, but with prices soaring, some Haitians are resorting to eating mud.

The cookies -- made of dirt, butter and salt -- hold little nutritional value, but manage to keep Haiti's poor alive.

Worldfocus special correspondent Benno Schmidt and producer Ara Ayer report from Haiti, showing how far some people are going to fill their stomachs.

Read more at WorldFocus.

Comments

[DaisyDooks]

10:21 AM on 02/21/2009

I want to know who is supplying the Haitians dirt. Where is the dirt coming from? Why are these people being sold dirt instead of edible, nutritious products? More importantly, as another poster inquired, do they have any fertile land to cultivate?

[Benno Schmidt]

12:52 PM on 02/21/2009

As the package made clear, the Haitians themselves buy the dirt for about five dollars a sack to then sell the cookies for 5 cents each. They buy them in a mountain area where the dirt for the cookies has been sold for decades.

The reason they buy the dirt, which is found in markets large and small throughout the nation, is that they have nothing else readily available that they can afford to eat and the dirt cookies made them constipated and give their stomachs the impression of being full.

As for their environment, Haitians rely almost solely on wood-derived charcoal to heat homes and cook their food with. As a result almost all of their trees are gone. Less than 2 percent of their trees remain. If you go to the date prior to the dirt cookie segment you'll see that the trees in Haiti have been raped and chopped down for charcoal for decades and there are very few trees or fertile grounds left.

Worldfocus Correspondent Benno Schmidt

[David Mason]

02:37 PM on 02/21/2009

First, Benno, excellent reporting! Thank you so much for shedding light on a story that has been going on in relative obscurity for far too long. Haiti represents a chance for all of us to test the courage of our convictions, and beliefs about the chance for environmental and social remediation.

FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO HELP: Please consider visiting http://www.yele.org, the charity founded by Wyclef Jean to help the people of his homeland on multiple fronts (education, environment, employment/food, and music - yes, culture is still important to the those at the edge!). Your dollars will go MUCH farther if pooled. I work with the charity and am simply astounded day after day at all they do (they were able to deliver food where the UN was afraid to go, even though the UN was ARMED, and yele was armed only with good will).

The problems have many roots, and history is instructive on some level, but won't change entirely the prescription for turning this all around - which IS possible. Haiti was once the richest colony in the Americas, and the first nation to liberate itself under African origin rule. Haiti is the proving ground for all of our hopes of turning around the glabal threat of environmental degradation, and we should put in what we can...it is REALLY about all of us!

[Gay Thomas]

07:44 PM on 02/26/2009

The question that I hope we will all be asking is what can we do to help??? This is such a tragic situation, happening just a few miles from our shores. If you are interested in a great organization that is truly making a difference every day in Haiti, check out the What If? Foundation at:
http://www.whatiffoundation.org
I love this group as it is not a big multi-national aid organization, but instead is a small person-to-person type outfit, with almost no administrative overhead costs, that supports local people running a meal program for kids. Simple and direct. The money supports local farmers too, as all the food is prepared using local ingredients.
We can care about where the dirt comes from, sure -- but let's also care about getting real food to the people who so desperately need it.

[indyleftist]

08:25 AM on 02/21/2009

And just remember....
Haiti elected a reformer several years ago named Aristade
The United States felt he was too socialist so we overthrew his government and installed someone who is more status quo

And as this story shows the status quo has been maintained. Hooray for America!

[ChristiB]

07:48 PM on 02/20/2009

The poorest nation eating dirt beside the most obese nation that throws away food...we are all pathetic.

Does anyone have any idea how I can help?

[harriettubman]

11:15 AM on 02/20/2009

They must have some serious gastric problems too. Wyclef Jean continues to raise money for this poor country when he should try to find someone to run for president to CHANGE things. Continually throwing money at a corrupt country won't change a thing.

[NPA]

08:48 AM on 02/20/2009

Soon well be eating dirt cookies as well. I'm unemployed for over a year now, three kids, spouse unemployed, a B.S. in computer science that cost me 51k. and I just applied for food stamps. Isn't America great?!

[harriettubman]

11:16 AM on 02/20/2009

IT people are in need now. It must be where you live. Keep trying and I wish your family well. Perhaps you can relocate with a relative to find work.

[kwright]

06:41 AM on 02/20/2009

This is a front page story. Also, it has already appeared at Huffpost. Obviously the world has not responded as usual.

[HappyMarsden]

11:33 PM on 02/19/2009

However they are made, I think the Haitians ought to keep the recipe for themselves, before McDonald's starts marketing them to children, and you see "McDirties" on their menu.

[RaWash]

08:47 PM on 02/21/2009

you say this as if it's a joke, in Egypt falafels is a traditional food,

[RaWash]

08:56 PM on 02/21/2009

sorry, this was interrupted by my stupid browser.. but now i don't feel like continuing the post, just google "mcfalafel" xD

[Phalanxman]

11:14 PM on 02/19/2009

We can feed them all this year, and they will all be starving again next year. What is wrong with this nation? I say it's time to have the U.N. sanction taking over the government there in order to restore stability.

[Chlowina]

11:28 PM on 02/19/2009

There's nothing in it for them, so why should they be concerned about starving children.

[harriettubman]

11:16 AM on 02/20/2009

The U.N is WORTHLESS. There are more world problems now than before and not one has been addressed by the U.N.

[Trueheart]

10:40 PM on 02/19/2009

Why doesn't the USofA care about this country?
All my life I have seen pictures of these poor souls, truly the most wretched of the earth, and nobody ever makes a lasting gesture to save them from famine, poverty and squalor? I thought Clinton was at last going to make a real effort to help the Haitians, and he ended up doing zip. That was the major reason I lost respect for him.

Can anyone explaint why is it that so many Americans demonstrate such a high level of compassion for suffering in Africa, when our neighbors in Haiti are living their daily lives in a hellhole?

[1liberalconspirator]

10:51 PM on 02/19/2009

I know people that have donated time and money to assist down there but it has not been enough to help those people. I agree, we should do more.

[robXdion]

12:08 AM on 02/20/2009

Because their sin was ridding their island of white enslavers through violent revolution. That terrified white slaveowners in the early 1800's ever since. Too close to home. Africa never had that conscious fear on past US leaders. The sins committed on Africans can be relegated to Europeans and are more distant from US shores. And despite Clinton's talk, he still had to appeal to white interests and sensitivities that dictated any show of acknowledgment of past wrongs done to blacks had to be measured and careful. That's why he gave an US government apology for slavery in Liberia and not on US soil. . . . . which the US media barely reported.

[LoLoLaLa]

08:44 PM on 02/19/2009

Haitians have been eating mud for more than a decade. Haiti is in America's own backyard, yet we only tend to it when we want to install a new leader.

[dezzu]

08:04 PM on 02/19/2009

Not nearly enough info about the food crisis - people have been trying to help for quite a while.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25773473/

[GrainOSand]

07:32 PM on 02/19/2009

First, protect Israel at all costs. I have to say that or be accused of bias (WTF).

That said, it strikes me that the priority in Haiti should be the food supply. They import much of their food -- why? Is their no local capability for food growth. One dollar a day as a living wage is a demand for an environment capable of sustaining itself and not one dependent on plantation style economics. (The slaves became the masters and were no better, for they did not change their hearts.) Is it their geography that disallows such a societal configuration?

Government failure (I read ...corruption) and waste is at the root of the problem, so says the reporter. All of the normal exclamations of sadness, pity, and gut-wrenching concern will not change dirt to sustenance. I am sorry people of Haiti, of Israel, of Palestine, of anyplace where suffering is manifest and continues undisturbed in a cycle of pain, I am sorry I did not grow to be the answer. Charge it to my inadequacy and not my heart. I still keep a light burning for an end to all suffering, for all pain, for all premature death. I still see and believe beyond what I have been fed as all that is possible.

[LilGlow]

07:00 PM on 02/19/2009

This is so sad. Part of the world waste so much food, yet we have so many going hungry everyday.

[CraigR]

05:04 PM on 02/19/2009

The food that we throw away would probably be enough to feed all of Haiti. This just ain't right.