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Hungry Haiti
Giulia Rozzi January 30, 2008 | 3:12 pm EST
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Here’s something to chew on.

Jezebel reports that global food prices are so high Haitians are feeding themselves dirt — or more specifically, mud cookies made with salt and vegetable shortening. AP reporter Jonathan Katz sampled one: 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.” To be sure, this isn’t some innovation borne simply of the desperation of the time; Haiti has long been the poorest country in the Western hemisphere (Here’s a decent primer as to why), and the immune system strengthening power of dirt cookies, or “pica” have long made them such a staple of the impoverished woman’s prenatal diet in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean that some women actually get cravings for them during pregnancy.

I’m sorry but no one deserves to eat dirt.

For ways to help hunger in Haiti visit http://www.worldhungerrelief.org/haiti/index.html

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Filed under: Ethics • Human Rights Related Links: Chinese Fortune Cookies Not Chinese Afterall

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One Response to “Hungry Haiti”

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  1. According to Naomi Klein, this is one byproduct of extreme capitalism.
    Things could be different, of course.
    I have heard that suicide is a number one killer of youth in our weathy countries.
    What is truly amazing is that these people with nothing will eat dirt to live.
    What do they have that we don’t have?
    Mmmm.
    Lora

    lora brunckeNo Gravatar January 30, 2008 | 4:33 pm EST

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