Posted on 01/14/2010 5:11:09 PM PST by La Lydia
...The New York Times lectured Haiti on April 18 (2008) that “Haiti, its agriculture industry in shambles, needs to better feed itself.” Unfortunately, the article did not talk at all about one of the main causes of the shortages -- the fact that the U.S. and other international financial bodies destroyed Haitian rice farmers to create a major market for the heavily subsidized rice from U.S. farmers. This is not the only cause of hunger in Haiti and other poor countries, but it is a major force.
Thirty years ago, Haiti raised nearly all the rice it needed. What happened?
In 1986, after the expulsion of Haitian dictator Jean Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loaned Haiti $24.6 million in desperately needed funds (Baby Doc had raided the treasury on the way out). But, in order to get the IMF loan, Haiti was required to reduce tariff protections for their Haitian rice and other agricultural products and some industries to open up the country’s markets to competition from outside countries. The U.S. has by far the largest voice in decisions of the IMF.
Doctor Paul Farmer was in Haiti then and saw what happened. “Within less than two years, it became impossible for Haitian farmers to compete with what they called ‘Miami rice.’ The whole local rice market in Haiti fell apart as cheap, U.S. subsidized rice, some of it in the form of ‘food aid,’ flooded the market. There was violence, ‘rice wars,’ and lives were lost.”
“American rice invaded the country,” recalled Charles Suffrard, a leading rice grower in Haiti in an interview with the Washington Post in 2000. By 1987 and 1988, there was so much rice coming into the country that many stopped working the land.
Fr. Gerard Jean-Juste, a Haitian priest who has been the pastor at St. Claire and an outspoken human rights advocate, agrees. “In the 1980s, imported rice poured into Haiti, below the cost of what our farmers could produce it. Farmers lost their businesses. People from the countryside started losing their jobs and moving to the cities. After a few years of cheap imported rice, local production went way down.”
Still the international business community was not satisfied. In 1994, as a condition for U.S. assistance in returning to Haiti to resume his elected Presidency, Jean-Bertrand Aristide was forced by the U.S., the IMF, and the World Bank to open up the markets in Haiti even more.
But, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, what reason could the U.S. have in destroying the rice market of this tiny country?
Haiti is definitely poor. The U.S. Agency for International Development reports the annual per capita income is less than $400. The United Nations reports life expectancy in Haiti is 59, while in the US it is 78. Over 78% of Haitians live on less than $2 a day, more than half live on less than $1 a day.
Yet Haiti has become one of the very top importers of rice from the U.S. The U.S. Department of Agriculture 2008 numbers show Haiti is the third largest importer of US rice - at over 240,000 metric tons of rice. (One metric ton is 2200 pounds).
Rice is a heavily subsidized business in the U.S. Rice subsidies in the U.S. totaled $11 billion from 1995 to 2006. One producer alone, Riceland Foods Inc of Stuttgart Arkansas, received over $500 million dollars in rice subsidies between 1995 and 2006.
The Cato Institute recently reported that rice is one of the most heavily supported commodities in the U.S. -- with three different subsidies together averaging over $1 billion a year since 1998 and projected to average over $700 million a year through 2015. The result? “Tens of millions of rice farmers in poor countries find it hard to lift their families out of poverty because of the lower, more volatile prices caused by the interventionist policies of other countries.”
In addition to three different subsidies for rice farmers in the U.S., there are also direct tariff barriers of 3 to 24 percent, reports Daniel Griswold of the Cato Institute -- the exact same type of protections, though much higher, that the U.S. and the IMF required Haiti to eliminate in the 1980s and 1990s.
U.S. protection for rice farmers goes even further. A 2006 story in the Washington Post found that the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all; including $490,000 to a Houston surgeon who owned land near Houston that once grew rice.
And it is not only the Haitian rice farmers who have been hurt. Paul Farmer saw it happen to the sugar growers as well. “Haiti, once the world's largest exporter of sugar and other tropical produce to Europe, began importing even sugar-- from U.S. controlled sugar production in the Dominican Republic and Florida. It was terrible to see Haitian farmers put out of work. All this sped up the downward spiral that led to this month's food riots.”
After the riots and protests, President Rene Preval of Haiti agreed to reduce the price of rice, which was selling for $51 for a 110 pound bag, to $43 dollars for the next month. No one thinks a one month fix will do anything but delay the severe hunger pains a few weeks....
Right. Evil write folks destroyed the Haitian will to work.
Right. Evil write folks destroyed the Haitian will to work.
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This will be politicized to HELL in the next few days and coming weeks. Just watch.
Even the best farmer on earth can't compete with FREE. Food aid ruins economies and ultimately causes more hunger.
Rice is a heavily subsidized business in the U.S. Rice subsidies in the U.S. totaled $11 billion from 1995 to 2006. One producer alone, Riceland Foods Inc of Stuttgart Arkansas, received over $500 million dollars in rice subsidies between 1995 and 2006. The Cato Institute recently reported that rice is one of the most heavily supported commodities in the U.S. -- with three different subsidies together averaging over $1 billion a year since 1998 and projected to average over $700 million a year through 2015...
In addition to three different subsidies for rice farmers in the U.S., there are also direct tariff barriers of 3 to 24 percent, reports Daniel Griswold of the Cato Institute -- the exact same type of protections, though much higher, that the U.S. and the IMF required Haiti to eliminate in the 1980s and 1990s.
U.S. protection for rice farmers goes even further...the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all; including $490,000 to a Houston surgeon who owned land near Houston that once grew rice...
Social security would go a long way down there.
Thanks to this earthquake and the billions that will be spent in the rebuilding effort, Port au Prince could possibly be undergoing a renaissance and be a nice place in about 20 years, if they play their cards right.
Aristide is one good example of what happened......twice.
I’m a little surprised Obozo isn’t trying to reinstall him for a 3rd time.
US law requires that food aid be purchased from US farmers, processed and bagged in the US and shipped on US vessels — which cost 50% of the money allocated for this kind of aid.
If 0 would evacuate all of Haiti to Red state welfare rolls and bulldoze the place it could make a good 58th state.
Wow, that’s some bullsh!t there. Similar to the whole sugar fiasco. Agriculture sudsidies piss me off more than anything.
Napoleon attempted to re subjugate them. Napoleon’s forces lost to the Haitians due to in part “Divine Intervention” in the form of yellow fever and a determined populace to remain free.
(Take that Pat Robertson.)
The failure of the French forces to win over Hispaniola (Haitians) led to the Louisiana Purchase which changed the course of history for the United States.
Look it up.
Interesting article. Thanks.
I find it totally hypocritical for anyone in the U.S. to complain about subsidized industries in other countries that undercut U.S.-based producers of any product or service.
You must not live in Florida because the Dems are already trying to turn FL into Haiti. Do not give the Kenyan-born marxist any ideas.
Economic ludditism.
Sending free or cheaper food to a poor nation allows its citizens to spend less on food and thereby have more resources to spend on the other necessaries of life.
The losers are the US taxpayers subsidizing the US rice growers, unless this is considered purely as charity to Haiti and evaluated on that basis.
Yes, Haitian rice farmers are hurt, but the country of Haiti as a whole is helped.
And as to the “free,” yes, of course you are right. So we 1) forced them to lower their tariffs so we could export our heavily subsidized rice to them and 2) provided them lots of free rice. Totally screwed them, I think. And CATO isn’t exactly a left-wing think tank.
In theory, yes, but it didn’t work out that way, did it?
Only if one cares ONLY for the rice farmers of Haiti and nothing for the rest of Haiti who have to feed themselves.
Another example would be if OPEC decided to sell oil to the US at a massively subsidized price of $2 a barrel. Yes, it would devastate the domestice oil industry. But the benefit to the rest of the economy would be huge.
Some people would read newspaper articles about domestic oil workers becoming unemployed and conclude that OPEC selling us oil at $2 a barrel was a bad thing.
Haiti might be a lot of dysfunctional things, but it never has had a command economy, so what are you trying to say? You think the Russians are to blame for the misery there today?
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