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Causes of the 2008 Haitian Food Crisis

The global food crisis during 2008 led to the doubling of prices of staple food such as rice, wheat and corn, across the world markets, the results of which were experienced throughout many of the world poorest countries including nations in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and The Caribbean. Haiti has the lowest GDP per capita of any country in the Caribbean and is where the impacts of the crisis were felt the most. Several factors were attributed to the vulnerability of Haiti during the food crisis, including geographical and historical impacts and also neoliberal world market policies

Historical Haiti is located on the Island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean, just East of the United States. The Dominican Republic is located on the east of the Island, Haiti on the west. Spanish colonies settled on the east, importing a few slaves and began a reasonably sustainably approach to plantations during the 16th Century. The Spanish ceded the western third (now Haiti) to French colonials in 1697 that set about intensive agricultural farming and building sugar plantations, run by slaves, degrading the soil quality immensely. By the 1780s, nearly 40% of all the sugar imported by Britain and France and 60% of the world’s coffee came from the small colony.

End of Colonial Rule Towards the end of the 18th Century, the fabric of the social hierarchy in Haiti began to unravel. Runaway slave communities began forming on remote areas of the Island and freed black slaves sought full citizenship and property rights, this increased the tension between white slave owners and the black population leading to several revolts in the 1790’s. After a war with the French on the Island lead by Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Alexandre Pétion in 1803, Haiti was free from colonial rule for the first time in 300 years. The engine behind Haiti’s economic prosperity, the plantation system lay in ruins after years of warfare and in 1820 the nation agreed to pay France 150 million francs to France in order to restore trade relations. To this day this has kept the small Island nation heavily indebted.

U.S Occupation 1915-34 During the early 20th century, Haiti’s political instability, its precarious economic situation, and the constant threat of European encroachment provoked numerous interventions by the U.S. Navy. In July 1915, civil unrest surrounding the assassination of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam provided a motive for intervention. U.S. Marines were dispatched to Haiti, with the pretext to protect U.S. financial interests and citizens. Rather than withdrawing after a show of military strength, as had previously been the case, the U.S. military came to stay in 1915. Marines seized control of the country, disbanding the Haitian military and installing Phillippe Sudre Dartiguenave, as president (1915−22).

20th Century Onwards Since the 1940’s political instability and economic downturns have characterised the nation of Haiti, with successive presidential rules that have ended civil unrest and military actions. This has kept the nation from prospering and has left them in serious dependence for food and loans from Western nations and the IMF and World Bank.

Geographical

Geographically, rain bearing winds come from the east of the Island of Hispaniola and high mountains in the centre of Hispaniola mean clouds rise, dumping water on the Dominican side so make it over the mountains and therefore Haiti experiences very little rain on their side of the island. The soil quality on the island is also very poor, with more limestone rock and a higher percentage of mountainous regions, especially on the eastern boarder, that in the Dominican means a less productive agricultural setting and large expanses of un-farmer-able land, results in a heavier reliance on importation for food, and a lack of domestic crops on the market. This also explains why Haiti’s GDP per capita is a tenth of the Dominican Republic, even though they are located in a similar region and why they have had a far worse experience of the 2008 food crisis. Neoliberal Policies

IMF and World Bank Recommendations The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank strongly encouraged the Haitian government to adopt neoliberal policies and follow SAPS (structural adjustment packages), during the 1990’s, which were designed to open up the Haitian market to generate economic upturn. These policies introduced in 1995, allowing for the importation of goods without government regulations being so strongly imposed and severely reduced tariffs. Tariffs on US rice for example fell from 35% in 1994 to only 3% just a year later, meaning cheap, government subsided, rice was entering into the Haitian domestic market with increased regularity and accessibility for the urban population, especially in the capital Port-au-Prince.

U.S Subsides Rice In turn this lead to increased importation of US rice, and a reduction in domestically grown staple produce (such as rice and corn) in Haiti, forcing many rural farmers to abandon growing these crops and instead focus on subsistence growing, or turning to fruit and vegetable growing as cash crops, all the while increasing the countries dependency on the global market and especially the US, for staple foods. And through the encouragement of these countries plus SAPS backing from the IMF and The World Bank the Haitian government agreed to liberalise trade, and open up to the global market, in the hope of competing on an international scale. The problem with this, George in his article suggests is that Haiti are not large exporters of goods, and rural farmers could not compete on the global market, without the subsidised backing of their government, which due to neoliberal policies, they were unwilling to provide. This then only resulted in an increased competition in the domestic market, and staples such as rice were flooded in at a cheap price.

Neoliberal Policy Effects With over 55% of the countries rice being imported, when food prices doubled, the 55% of the population living on $1 a day and below suddenly could no longer afford to buy a pound of rice. The price rose from $3.50 to $5.25 per pound between April and August 2008, meaning a full week’s worth of savings was required to be able to purchase staple foods. The rural population and the poor urban population were particularly vulnerable as supplementary employment opportunities for farmers was limited, and the urban population relied solely on the market place for food, leaving them with no alternative when food prices doubled (FAO 2008).

Highly subsided US rice could be imported in at a cheap price that the urban population brought in favour of domestic, rurally grown rice. This lead to the reduction of domestically growing rice farmers, who, finding alternative cash crop options limited, were force to become subsistence farmers and could no longer compete domestically in the rice markets. The lack of support from the government, due to neoliberal policies of privatisation and state withdrawal meant the country was forced into a reliance on imported US rice for the bulk of their populations needs, leaving the country in the fate of the free market.

On 12 April 2008, the Haitian Senate voted to dismiss Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis after violent food riots hit the country. These food riots caused the death of 5 people. Prices for food items such as rice, beans, fruit and condensed milk have gone up 50% in Haiti since late 2007 while the price of fuel has tripled in the months that followed. Riots broke out in April because of the rocketing prices. The government had been attempting to restore order by subsidizing a 15% reduction in the price of rice, however this failed to account for the vast increases in prices. As of early 2010, post-earthquake, Port-au-Prince is almost entirely reliant on foreign food aid, meaning the farming communities are struggling to maintain a living.