Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt

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house with her baby, five siblings, and two unemployed parents. The cookies made of dirt, salt, and vegetable shortening and have become a regular meal for not only Charlene’s family, but many other families as well. "When my mother does not cook anything, I have to eat them three times a day," Charlene said.
The article states that in Haiti and other Caribbean countries they depend on imports and food prices are up to 40 percent in places. Food prices from all around the world have been increasing because of higher oil prices, needed for fertilizer, irrigation, and transportation. Even prices for simple and basic ingredients like corn and wheat are also up in pricing. With damages left over from the 2007 hurricane season, floods and crop damage have global prices rising. Soon after the hurricane season the UN Food and Agriculture Agency declared states of emergency in Haiti and other Caribbean countries. Caribbean leaders held an emergency summit in December to ...

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women buy the dirt, then process into mud cookies in nearby shantytowns. Carrying buckets full of water up ladders to the roof of an old prison, they strain out rocks and clumps on a sheet, and stir in shortening and salt. Next, they pat the mixture into forms of cookies and leave them to dry under the scorching sun.
A reporter has been to Haiti to sample the dirt cookies and found that although it had a smooth consistency, as soon as it touched the tongue it sucked all the moisture out of the mouth. For hours after eating it, an unpleasant taste of dirt still existed on the taste buds. It has been reported by Haitian doctors that depending on dirt cooks for sustenance risks ...

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