The U.S. Role in Haiti's Food Riots

As people around the world continue to protest the soaring prices of basic food items, the World Food Program has described the crisis as a silent tsunami. The head of the Food and Agriculture Organization Jacques Diouf blamed the current global food crisis on “inappropriate” policy decisions over the past two decades. He said Wednesday that while investment in agriculture has been sharply reduced in poor countries, wealthy countries have maintained generous farm subsidies. An official from the UN Conference on Trade and Development, Rolf Traeger, faulted the Structural Adjustment Programs prescribed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for gutting agricultural production in the developing world.

Nowhere is this perhaps more clear than in the case of Haiti. Thirty years ago Haiti had all the rice it needed. Then in 1986, Haiti turned to the IMF for a loan. Now, after cutting tariff protections on local rice, Haiti imports most of its rice from the United States, which in turn remains heavily subsidized. US rice farmers get one billion dollars a year in government subsidies. Meanwhile in Haiti, hungry people are rioting in the streets because they cannot afford to buy rice.

Bill Quigley is a a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans. His latest article is about the situation in Haiti. Its called “The US Role in Haiti”s Food Riots.” Bill Quigley joins us now from New Orleans.

Bill Quigley, law professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, also the director of the Law Clinic and Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University.

Related Links

• "The U.S. Role in Haiti's Food Riots" - article by Bill Quigley

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Related Democracy Now! Stories

• Stuffed and Starved: As Food Riots Break Out Across the Globe, Raj Patel Details “The Hidden Battle for the World Food System” (4/8/2008)
• Stuffed and Starved: As Food Riots Break Out Across the Globe, Part II of Raj Patel on “The Hidden Battle for the World Food System” (4/16/2008)

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