On foreign aid and Haiti

Aid often conforms to needs of U.S. campaign donors over the needs of Haitian victims. Food aid, for example, reduces stockpiles of excess, subsidized U.S. corn better than it fights hunger. It sometimes even increases hunger in Haiti by undermining otherwise sustainable local farmers. When farmers cannot sell their grain because Uncle Sam is giving it away, they close down their farms and move — to a shoddy house on a precarious slope in the city.

Brian Concannon, Jr in the New York Times round-up “The Help That Haiti Needs.”

Keep in mind that 30 years ago, Haiti once produced all the rice it needed.

• Also see: Haiti: 10 Hunger Facts from the World Food Programme
• Also see: Crisis and Hope in the Boston Review