Eating Mud Pies in Haiti

I was making dinner for Foti and had MSNBC in the background. I heard the most disturbing story about Haitians eating mud for daily sustenance. Upon hearing this, I immediately stopped what I was doing to watch the story. 

The reporter explained that high fuel prices have increased transportation and food costs on wheat, corn and rice. In fact, food prices have spiked over 40% in the last year in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. Since most Haitians can't afford rice, they eat cookies made of dried yellow dirt as their daily nutrition. 

In the past, pregnant women and children would eat the dirt cookies as a source of calcium or as an antacid. Now, they're eating these hard disks made of mud, salt, and vegetable shortening, as daily meals. This is what most poor families eat 3 times a day.

To make matters worse, several hurricanes this year have flooded crop fields in several Caribbean countries.   Haiti must import most of its food and that means higher prices at the markets.  A $5 bag of 100 mud cookies is the only affordable option for most. 

This upsets me to the core. There is no reason why anyone on this planet should have to eat dried mud. Besides parasites and the fowl taste of dirt, I'm sure there's a myriad of more unpleasantries that are associated with eating these "dirt cookies". Cookies should be made of flour, sugar, eggs and should have some yummy chip, chocolate or nut. Maybe all three if you're lucky.

This is a crisis; it's an epidemic that's plaguing this world we all share. With the abundance of food in our country, I can't help but feel guilty every time I throw something away that "went stale" or "expired". Why did I overbuy ? Maybe I was hungry when I went shopping for food-- a common problem I have. Just because we can spend , doesn't mean we should spend. Maybe I could have sent $20 to Haiti or the Philippines, and made a REAL difference in someone's life ?

When I went to Greece, I saw a few homeless people and no one begging for food. Maybe it was the towns I stayed in, but the abundance of food was all around. Birds and stray animals feasted on grapes, figs and pomegranates. In almost 1 month, I saw no one begging for food. So why can't it be this way in all countries with declining markets and temperate climates? Corporate greed, lack of caring or maybe both. There is always a positive role we can play on this earth. We are so ignorant to the way most people in third world countries live and the measures they take for daily survival. I have bigger future plans to address this hunger issue, but I can only help what's going on now. I do my part whenever I can. There's just always something we can do for less fortunate people; PERIOD.