Peanuts to Haiti: Contemporary Food Systems Issue Analysis

The best of intentions can result in needless suffering.

Photo © 2018 Shaii Stone

America's Department of Agriculture (USDA) came under fire last month for its plan to send 500 metric tons of peanuts to Haiti as part of its "Stocks for Foods" program. The announcement came as an unwelcome surprise to the estimated half million mostly female Haitian peanut farmers and processors who count on the crop as a regular source of income. In an open letter, a coalition of sixty aid groups based in Haiti and America urged USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack to cancel the shipment, writing that the program "will destroy the incomes of vast numbers of Haiti's rural families, rolling back years of progress and hard work by Haitian farmers" ("An Open Letter," 2016).

Haiti has been struggling to stay alive since the arrival of Columbus. As Bell (2015) notes, "inequitable control of land has devastated the vast majority throughout Haitian history, from enslavement to today." Still fresh in Haitian memory is America's pressure to lower rice tariffs in the 1990s, which led to surplus US rice flooding the Haitian market, sending the price of Haitian rice plummeting, pushing farmers out of business, and "driving the nation further into poverty while increasing its dependence on foreign aid" (Igoe, 2016). Then, seeking work, the farmers flooded into Port-au-Prince; its subsequent overpopulation problem was "a major reason why the earthquake in 2010 was so devastating" ("An Open Letter," 2016).

Perspectives

Alexis Taylor, deputy undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services at the USDA, wrote in a Washington Post Letter to the Editor that, with nearly a third of Haitian children dying of undernutrition, the donation of a year's worth of school meals for 140,000 children, including "a morning snack of roasted peanuts" is act of altruism (Taylor, 2016). "Having food available for the kids increases their attendance at school and improves their ability to learn," adds Sandra Wood, Deputy Administrator for Commodity Operations at the USDA Farm Service Agency. Haiti, in its third year of drought, cannot adequately feed its children. The US, "in prideful use of the nation's commodities" and with the aid of a 2014 Farm Bill-induced peanut windfall, is happy to provide this "nutritional commodity to a neighboring nation in great need, the Republic of Haiti" (Wood, 2016).

Critics of the plan, citing Haiti's history with foreign food aid, attest that opening Haiti to U.S. peanut surpluses, even for humanitarian reasons, could have harmful and long-lasting ripple effects" (Leschin-Hoar, 2016). Haitian economist and activist Camille Chalmers (as quoted in Hayes, 2016) says bluntly that this aid is "mainly about drawing down the U.S. stockpile and benefiting American agribusiness." Aid groups variously call it "crop dumping" (Leschin-Hoar, 2016) and poor policy. Even the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)'s mission in Haiti decries the program, tweeting that they are "not involved in importing peanuts. We are supporting #haitian farmers to boost their production!" (USAID Haiti, 2016).

Frameworks

From a food security perspective, one might ask that, while bolstering a nation's ability to feed itself and its children is a laudable goal, shouldn't one try to do that-and build regional food stability-by sourcing locally? Indeed, as Cohen (2016) notes, importing peanuts "stands in sharp contrast to the way the World Food Programme-with US government support-procures food for school meals from Haitian farmers. For example, WFP gets cheese and milk for 32,000 school children from Let Ago go, an initiative of Haitian dairy cooperatives." Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently spoke about the USDA's $1 billion push to promote regional and local food systems in the United States, thereby creating opportunities for farmers (Boudreau, 2016). From a food security standpoint, it makes sense that "if the U.S. really wanted to help Haiti they would focus on serious work improving irrigation and farmers' access to credit" (Hayes, 2016) so that its food producers could have the same opportunities to build the food security Vilsak wants for American farmers.

Haiti is a nation of peasant farmers, so it makes sense to examine the issue through the prism of food sovereignty. Clendenning and Dressler (2013) write that food sovereignty democratically challenges the "bigger aspects of food production" (p. 25) such as barriers to self-determination, with groups having a say in how their own food systems operate, and one place. This becomes apparent is in Haiti's soils: erosion and fertility. "One major factor that has been reported to contribute to chronic poverty and malnutrition in rural Haiti is soil infertility.

However, it appears that most foreign NGOs are not focused on agriculture, let alone soil fertility issues, despite agriculture being the major source of livelihood in rural Haiti" (Bargout and Raizada, 2013). Too, food sovereignty must mean acknowledging that 80% of Haitians engage in small-scale, usually rural, agriculture and can meet its needs without succumbing to the neoliberal expectations of other nations. "Any plan must support their mode of [growing]," says one local activist. "That's what will change this country" (quoted in Steckley and Bell, 2016).

Enforced food aid will not build lasting change, nor will it promote either food security nor food sovereignty: ''Haiti is in its third year of drought, but peanuts are a crop that is drought resistant, which makes this even more important .. When other crops fail, peanuts are what they're literally relying on to survive" (Leschin-Hoar, 2016).

References

An open letter to the USDA and USAID on planned peanut shipment to Haiti. (2016, May). Retrieved from http:/ /www.ijdh.org/2016/05/topics/economy/an-open-letter-to-the-usdaand- usaid-on-planned-peanut-shipment-to-haiti/

Bargout, R. N. and Raizada, M. N. (2013). Soil nutrient management in Haiti, pre-Columbus to the present day: lessons for future agricultural interventions. Agriculture & Food Security (2)11. DOI: 10.1186/2048-7010-2-11

Bell, B. (2016, January 13). The blood of the Earth: Agriculture, land rights, and Haitian history. Other Worlds. Retrieved from http://otherworldsarepossible.org/blood-earth-agricultureland- rights-and-haitian-history

Boudreau, C. (2016, April 18). GIPSA: The story continues. Politico. Retrieved from http:/ /www.politico.corn/tipsheets/moming-agriculture/2016/04/ gipsa-the-storycontinues-will-ftc-crackdown-on-natural-impact-food-house-approps-to-markupagriculture-b ill-213 808#ixzz48m UBa5yd

Clendenning, J. and Dressler, W. (2013). Between empty lots and open pots: Understanding the rise of urban food movements in the USA. Food Sovereignty: A Critical Dialogue. International Conference September 14-15, 2013. New Haven: Yale University.

Coehn, M. (2016). Dumping peanuts on Haiti. Oxfam America, Inc. Retrieved from http ://politicsofpoverty.oxfamamerica.org/2016/04/ dumping-peanuts-on-haiti/

Hayes, L. (2016, April 26). Controversy grows over planned surplus U.S. peanut donation to Haiti. Growing America. Retrieved from

http://growinggeorgia.com/features/2016/04/ controversy-grows-over-planned-surplus-uspeanut-donation-haiti/

Igoe, M. (2016, May 12). Procurement corruption in Syria, unwanted peanuts for Haiti: This week in development news. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from: https://www.devex.com/news/procurement-corruption-in-syria-unwanted-peanuts-forhaiti-this-week-in-development-news-8 815 6

Leschin-Hoar, C. (2016, May 5). U.S. to ship Peanuts to feed Haitian kids; aid groups say 'This is wrong.' National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/05/05/476876371/u-s-to-ship-peanuts-to-feedhaitian-kids-aid-groups-say-this-is-wrong

Steckley, J. and Bell, B. (2016). Haiti's fraudulent presidential frontrunner seizes land for his own banana republic. Food First. Retrieved from http://foodfirst.org/haitis-fraudulentpresidential-frontrunner-seizes-land-for-his-own-banana-repub lie/

Taylor, A. (2016, May 1). What U.S. peanut donations mean to Haiti [Letter to the editor]. The Washington Post.

USAID Haiti [USAID Haiti]. (2016, May 2.) @mccwashington @USAID Haiti is not involved in importing peanuts. We are supporting #haitian farmers to boost their production! [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/USAID Haiti/status/727282606149005313 ?ref_ src"'-'twsrc"tfw

Wood, S. (2016, March 31). USDA provides nutritious U.S. peanuts in humanitarian effort for Haiti. [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://blogs.usda.gov/2016/03/31/usdaprovides-nutri ti ous-u-s-pean u ts-in-humanitarian-effort-for-haiti/

© 2016 Shaii Stone