Hatians blame U.S.

for food shortages

Renita Jablonski: The rise in food prices is pinching budgets around the world. But in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, it's been especially painful. Haiti's main staple is rice. The price of rice has jumped nearly 80 percent since eptember, spar!ing deadly protests that led to the ouster of the country's prime minister. This, in a country that once produced all the food it needed. "s #eed $indsay reports from %ort&au&%rince, many in Haiti blame the '. . for their hunger pangs.

Reed Lindsay: ()ar!et sounds* +ood ,endor -ileana )onase sits on a cinder bloc! in a muddy mar!et place in downtown %ort&au&%rince. -ileana is selling yams in the searing heat. But there are few buyers.

Cileana Monase: (spea!s through a translator* . put my merchandise on the ground yesterday, and . didn't sell anything all day. . can't ma!e money to eat, to drin!. .'m hungry, but . don't ha,e anything.

/ams, manioc, millet, breadfruit && all of these used to be Haitian staples, but today they're not selling well.

Monase: )ost food nowadays is from )iami. "ll the food we eat is imported.

"t the top of this food pyramid is rice, !nown here as )iami rice.

Monase: $ots of )iami rice started coming into the country. 0,en though Haitian rice was still sold, it became too e1pensi,e. )iami rice destroyed Haitian rice.

+ourteen years ago, at the urging of the '. . go,ernment and .nternational )onetary +und, Haiti slashed its tariffs and opened its mar!et to imports. '. .&subsidi2ed rice poured into the -aribbean nation. #ice, once so pri2ed it was only eaten on undays, suddenly became cheap enough that the a,erage Haitian could eat it daily. Haiti became the third largest importer of '. .&grown rice, and local production of rice and traditional food nosedi,ed.

Marie Michel Jean: There is no rice in the mountains. Where . came from, nobody grows rice.

That's )arie )ichel 3ean. he mo,ed here 45 years ago from the countryside when farms began to collapse. he blames cheap imported food and a go,ernment that has done little to help the country's farmers.

Jean: +armers aren't encouraged to grow local food. $ocal food is useless now.

)arie )ichel sells rice from a sac! branded with a '. . flag. he prefers yams to rice, but says because the demand for yams is wea!, she ma!es more money selling imported food. he's dropped her prices on rice by about 50 percent in the last wee!, than!s to an emergency go,ernment subsidy. But at 60 cents a pound, it's still too pricey for most Haitians. Half the population gets by on less than a dollar a day.

7egetable ,endor -ileana )onase says she'll eat whate,er she can afford to buy. $ately the situation has become so desperate, people now tal! about a 8-loro1 hunger,8 a hunger so painful it feels as if they',e swallowed bleach.

Monase: "ny food that comes, we'll eat. We'll ta!e anything we can get. We're not well. We ha,e nothing. We're hungry. Hunger is !illing us.

Haiti's %resident #ene %re,al has promised to cut the price of fertili2er and impro,e irrigation for farmers. But those who are hungry now are s!eptical that they'll see a change in food prices anytime soon.

.n %ort&au&%rince, Haiti, .'m #eed $indsay, for )ar!etplace.