Desperate Haitians Survive On Mud Cookies
Slum Residents Suffering As Oil Prices, Biofuel Demand, Weather Drive Food Costs Up
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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. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
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Yolen Jeunky, 45, collects dried mud cookies to sell in Cite Soleil in Port-au-Prince,Thursday, Nov. 29, 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. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
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A market vendor sells mud cookies at the La Saline market in Port-au-Prince, Friday, Jan. 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
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Chante, 19, holds her baby as she makes mud cookies on the the roof of Fort Dimanche, once a prison, in Port-au-Prince, Thursday Nov. 29 , 2007. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
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Cajeunes, 11, shows his tongue after eating a mud cookie in Cite Soleil, Friday, Jan. 18, 2008. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)
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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 Salines slum, two cups of rice now sell for 60 U.S. cents, up 10 U.S. 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.
I'm hoping one day I'll have enough food to eat, so I can stop eating these. I know it's not good for me.
Marie Noel, 40, Mother of 7Merchants 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.

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."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



How can we help ... Is there a sure-fire way to support relief efforts in Haiti?
-Posted by emelder at 07:02 AM
You can''t help.
It''s a case of the rich getting richer, and the poor having more and more babies.
Otherwise open your wallet WIDE open cause there''s plenty of these stories around.
Americans, try to understand what this means. In 1991, I was in St. Lucia and stayed there for almost a month. I went to the local markets and cooked my own food. In the stores, in 1991, a box of Kellogs Corn flakes cost 13.00 (US) and a can of coke (real, not the local copy) cost about 3.00 US. So if this is so, how much are corn flakes now? 25.00/box?
"Trust me, if I see someone eating those cookies, I will discourage it," said Dr. Gabriel Thimothee, executive director of Haiti''s health ministry."
What an incredibly STUPID thing to say. People are eating these "cookies" because they have nothing else to eat--so if he will discourage it--what will replace them? Dreams, wishes and air burgers?
Posted by crzmeat at 07:37 AM : Jan 30, 2008
The problem with relief efforts to places like Haiti and Africa is that even with foreign relief workers, the majority of the food never reaches the starving masses. Instead it is hijacked by militias and government employees and soldiers--then sold on the black market to pad their own bank accounts. It is hard to even get US airlifted supplies to the people. Lots of countries demand the goods be distributed by their own people--and "their people" often take the goods for their own use and the starving people just keep starving. This is a well known problem.
See the crime rate,what they do to people in Miami is horrific, Don''''t bring these savages here. Our jails are full of Haitians who murder, hijack turists,beat kids on their way to school, rape girls etc. Pure beasts and wild animals.
Posted by Johnfrost at 07:54 AM : Jan 30, 2008
This is what starving, living on the edge and doing any thing to survive will make any man become--they are a product of their lives--they can''t change that, just because they are in a different country. I don''t advocate bringing anyone here--but understand that when we have policies and reward countries for exploiting their own people and resources for our benefit--there is a harvest--and part of that harvest is the dehumanizing and evil nature that comes out in the population when they are forced to live with deprivation and brutality. This is a common factor--whether it is ''horrible people '' from Haiti, or "former POWs" from other war torn lands. You should read the stories of life in Europe directly after WWII---it was horrific.
Courtesy of "Commander Guy" George W. Bush and "I''ve never seen a baby I wouldn''t bomb" *** Cheney, two people who expect history to like them better than we like them now.
Oh, and with the demand-side assistance of "free trader" Bill Clinton, who never saw a corporation he wouldn''t sell the working people out to. (I mean, c''mon - do YOU remember a great wave of "We really need to have free trade agreements so we can offshore America" in YOUR neighborhood?)
Check out www.rotary.org for more information or google your state or city rotary clubs.
If you ask yourself what your purpose in life is, it is not to get rich or be better than others, but to help those who are less fortunate than you are. When you die, you leave with nothing but your charity.
When we die, we go with nothing but our charity
Posted by Dialogue1 at 09:37 AM
If your Haitian you can leave all the hungry kids behind from all the skrewin and leave some victims of AIDS/HIV to spread to other countries.
Plus they can leave knowing that other countries will open their hearts and take in another cycle of this type of "victim" stories.
Guess why people usually don''t have 8-15 kids anymore.
Cause we''d all be eating these cookies.
So Dialogue1, go to Haiti and make us all proud of you.
If you really care, do something. If you don''t, then continue to be spoiled in the USA.
PS. Most relief organizations spend most of the money raised to "run" the company, that very few $$$ actually make it to whatever country they are trying to help.
Unfortunatly many people are uneducated about the history of Haiti. With a corrupt government, they will never be able to help themselves. . . I, myself have been there and Haitians are a beautiful people. If you really care, do something. If you don''''t, then continue to be spoiled in the USA.
Posted by clopezalles at 10:01 AM
History of Haiti?
When you talk about the Hatians being beautiful people are you talking about the transplanted Africans brought to Haiti or about the original people of Haiti?
Take an hour and listen and learn about OUR dirt
http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=8620&SectionName=&PlayMedia=No
Guess what?
If I knew my children would be eating mud cookies I wouldn''t have any kids.
Now go forth and multiply. . .
Then we all could eat dirt and breed like so many weeds.
He''s going to discourage it? How...? "I''d rather you eat NOTHING than those cookies!" What a jerk. If he can''t offer a solution, or a healthier alternative, he needs to shut up.
Posted by Prinzowhales
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You really think so? So, if I proposed that you eat nothing but mud cookies for one year, while I have access to all of the groceries in Wal-Mart for one year... you honestly believe that after that time, you''d be in better shape than me?
If you consider negative clothes sizes and severe malnutrition a "better shape" then maybe. Wonder how many of those people starving to death in Haiti would turn their noses up at corn syrup and processed food in preference of mud if cost weren''t an issue...? Probably NOBODY!
When you talk about the Hatians being beautiful people are you talking about the transplanted Africans brought to Haiti or about the original people of Haiti?
Posted by rushlimpdrug at 10:28 AM : Jan 30, 2008
The Africans in Haiti were brought there more than 400 years ago--they can claim after all this time, to be more indigenous to Haiti, than most Americans can to North America--and since most have ancestry n Haiti that trumps most Americans--what is your point? That is still the history of the country and the fact of oppression by their government and the former Imperialist powers that ruled or aided and abetted dictator rule over them still hold true.
Be careful how you judge others--God is not through with America yet and we seemed to be trending toward a polarized, Brazil type, 3rd world --playground for rich foreigner existence, ourselves.
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by paris146
February 1, 2008 5:29 PM PST
- Well, I don''t know any Haitians, they don''t live in close proximity to me, and it''s not a story frequently on the evening news. Besides, they''re black. Most aid they''re given is usually hijacked and never makes it to the people who need it most. They''re just another sad statistic in a world full of suffering people. Any excuse I conjure up, though, just doesn''t erase the picture I have in my head of those mud cookies, and the men, women, and children desperate enough to eat them. I''m not at all a religious person, but a verse keeps repeating itself, something like, ". . . do it unto the least of these. . ."
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