G8 to Poor
Women: Let
Them Eat
Dirt
By Yifat
Susskind
23/07/08 " "
--Real
Women, Real
Voices
- -Last
week,
leaders of
the world’s
richest
countries,
the Group of
Eight (G8),
met to chart
the course
of the
global
economy at
the
luxurious
Windsor
Hotel Toya
Resort and
Spa in
Toyako,
Japan. While
President
Bush and his
colleagues
discussed
world hunger
over a
six-course
lunch, women
in Haiti
were
preparing
cakes of
dirt for
their
children’s
dinner.
Eating dirt,
mixed with
salt and
vegetable
shortening,
is the
latest
coping
strategy of
Haitian
mothers
trying to
quiet hungry
children in
a year when
the cost of
rice
(Haiti’s
staple food)
has risen
nearly 150
percent.
Ironically,
many of
these women
were once
rice farmers
themselves.
But in the
1980s,
U.S.-grown
rice began
pouring into
Haiti.
Thanks to
federal
subsidies,
the imported
rice was
sold for
less than
what it cost
to grow it.
Haitian
farmers just
couldn’t
compete.
Neither
could
millions of
other
farmers
around the
world, who
have been
bankrupted
by the
influx of
rice, corn,
and wheat
from the
U.S., Europe
and Japan.
These
farmers have
gone from
growing
their own
food and
feeding
their
countries to
having to
buy food
that’s
priced on a
global
market. Now
that these
commodity
markets have
spiked,
millions of
more
families
cannot
afford to
eat.
Even here in
the U.S.,
still the
world’s
richest
country,
more and
more
families are
struggling
to afford
food these
days.
Thankfully,
we are not
forced to
feed our
children mud
cakes. But
ultimately,
all working
families and
small
farmers,
whether in
Haiti or
Iowa, are
hurt by farm
policies
that are
designed for
the benefit
of giant
food
corporations.
Consider the
U.S. grain
subsidies
that have
pushed so
many Haitian
families to
the brink of
survival.
They have
also hurt
family
farmers here
at home.
That’s
because the
lion’s share
of this $307
billion goes
to the
largest
factory
farms,
leaving
small-holder
farmers to
fend for
themselves.
As we saw
last month,
when floods
wiped out
hundreds of
acres of
crops in the
Midwest,
farming is a
risky
business.
It’s the
family
farmers who
don’t have
much of a
financial
cushion that
we should be
protecting
with
subsidies.
The same
goes for
small-holder
farmers in
Haiti and
other
developing
countries.
Most of
these
farmers are
women, are
mothers, who
like most
moms in the
U.S., are
responsible
for putting
dinner on
the table
every day.
In
developing
countries,
these
mothers
often grow
their
family’s
food from
scratch.
The
small-holder,
women
farmers had
no say in
the
decisions
that the G8
leaders’
made about
the global
food crisis.
Yet, it
turns out
that they
have a lot
to say when
it comes to
finding
solutions to
the crisis
they are
facing.
Just before
the G8
meeting, a
network of
women’s
groups from
Haiti,
Nicaragua,
Guatemala,
and Colombia
issued an
open letter
to the G8.
Brought
together by
the
international
women’s
human rights
organization,
MADRE, the
women called
on the G8 to
support real
solutions to
the food
crisis. They
proposed
concrete
changes in
the global
economy,
like
international
mechanisms
to stabilize
the cost of
food and
protect the
livelihoods
of farmers.
They called
for
billion-dollar-a-day
agricultural
subsidies to
be converted
from support
for big
agribusiness
to
incentives
for
sustainable,
small-scale
and organic
farms.
These are
solid
proposals
backed up by
research and
years of
first-hand
experience
in
communities
that are on
the
frontlines
of today’s
food crisis.
But instead
of taking
steps that
could remedy
the problem,
the G8
plugged more
of the same
corporate-friendly
trade and
agriculture
policies
that brought
on the food
crisis in
the first
place.
G8 leaders
called for
more “open
markets” in
food trade.
Openness
sounds good,
but in
practice
this means
that poor
countries
can’t use
tariffs to
protect
farmers from
unfair
competition.
The G8 also
pushed for
stricter
patent laws.
These rules
take
ownership of
seeds — the
very basis
of all
agriculture
— away from
small
farmers and
enable giant
biotech
companies
like
Monsanto to
control our
food supply.
The G8 did
call for
more aid to
countries
like Haiti
that have
been hard
hit by the
spike in
food prices.
That’s an
important
step when
lives are at
stake. But
the money is
to be
administered
through the
International
Monetary
Fund, famous
for making
offers with
strings
attached. In
this case,
governments
will be
required to
implement
more of the
kind of
trade
liberalization
that hurts
poor people
and small
farmers and
has created
record
profits for
big food
corporations
this year.
But as the
women’s
letter to
the G8
clearly
shows, it’s
not
corporate
profits, but
human rights
–including
the basic
right to
food — that
will
underpin
real
solutions to
the food
crisis.
Susskind is
the
communications
director of
MADRE:
Rights,
Resources
and Results
for Women
Worldwide.
Copyright ©
2008 by the
American
Forum.
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