Quote:
Originally Posted by Twig6
The real problem which the noise machine is furiously distracting us from by this constant mantra of blaming biofuels first and foremost--is the distribution of those grains in a global food market that has meant the destruction of local food economies everywhere, including the West to a lesser degree. For example, Haiti:
Thirty years ago, Haiti raised nearly all the rice it needed. What happened?
|
According to the FAO, production of agricultural staples (cereals, roots and tubers and pulses) in Haiti has grown from 900,000 tonnes in 1961 to 1.2 million tonnes today. The trouble is that population has increased from 3.8 million to 8.5 million over the same time. Only a third of Haiti is arable and most has been in agricultural production over the whole period. Insufficient increase in production with large increase in population will spell disaster.
Rice production in Haiti has gone up and down depending on the levels of government subsidies. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s production varied from 80,000 tonnes in 1970 to 135,000 tonnes in 1986. The highest production was in 1997 at 160,000 tonnes – 10 years after the Haitian rice industry supposedly “fell apart” with cheap US imports. Since then the acreage has decreased to 100,000 tonnes. Much of Haitian agriculture concerns acreage 2.5 acres of tree crops with root crops underneath and very little use of fertilizer.
The real problem with food security for Haiti is too many people on land that could never support them if they did not rely on imports from elsewhere. This means they are at the whim of international food prices – hence the current riots. Without serious agricultural structural reform or a great reduction in population the problems will remain into the future. Haiti closing their doors to food imports won’t help as it is impossible under current conditions for enough staple food to be grown to support the population.