Forget the 11.5B in aid to Haiti.........we can't afford to fund these countries with charity so they don't bother to get off their lazy backsides to try to provide for themselves. Send them a couple of abortion doctors instead and teach them to use birth control instead of laying around in bed scrounging off of other countries!

Shut down the aid to foreign countries and help our own people. Our government is supposed to put the taxpayers FIRST not LAST. Put the 11.5B back into Social Security where it belongs along with several trillion more the government has spent over the years! If the government had allow that money be invested in supporting manufacturing as Japan has done, then Social Security would not ever go broke and there would have been jobs for the younger people as well and they would be able to pay for their own health insurance as well.

Vote these fools out of office!

It's to early to show "Stupidity" Your comment shows you missed the whole point of this article being the Haitians DON'T WANT cheap imports from America they want to grow and eat their own nutrient enriched food.

Not this cheap genetically engineered food the U.S. sends them.

Would someone please explain how it is that the cost of living, and/or labor costs, are so high in Haiti that they can't compete on agriculture prices? How is it that the US can produce cheaper rice (including shipping costs) to a third world country who pays their laborers far below minimum wage?

rrobeson:

The US produces "cheaper" rice because it is highly subsidized by our government. When you have a government with pockets as deep as ours, it is basically impossible for anyone else to compete with our farmers. Haiti is not the only country whose economy has suffered because of our government subsidies. You can point to almost any impoverished country who trades with us and see the damage that our policies have caused.

The government buys US crops at market value, then sells them cheaper to 3rd world nations, it has nothing to do with giving subsidies, which btw were eliminated in the trade agreements. if our country truly gave the american farmers subsidies they wouldn't have negative incomes year after year and the land now growing houses instead of crops.

Soon we will have the same problem, cheap inports from other countrys are driving the the market prices down, by the time we get the money for the milk it's gone paying for feed, fuel and other business needs, there's nothing left to live on. Farmers are not forced to work a 2nd job for income & health insurance because they can't afford to pay $1000's a month for coverage.

"Haiti doesn't have the land nor the climate ... to produce enough rice," said Bill Reed, Riceland's vice president of communications. "The productivity of U.S. farmers helps feed countries which cannot feed themselves."

And the greed of some US corporations blinds them to the harm they cause some of the poorest, and most at-risk people on the planet. NO ONE BLAMES THE FARMERS, Mr. Reed, but I blame you, personally - although certainly not exclusively.

With cheap Imports the United States cant take care of itself either

ny farmer:

I beg to differ. The US government subsidizes some two dozen commodities. This is required by law.

This country is always in dire, Before the earthquake and in the future. They need to unite and figure something out. The UN and the U.S need to put an emphasis on this to them!

ny farmer

If farmers aren't being subsidized why is it that the folks who seem to be doing really well are the farmers.

I live in the country, in the midwest, and all the farmers that live around here drive brand new BIG suvs have beautiful BIG new houses and are constantly buying new equipment such as combines the size of a yacht, is that because business is bad? Help me understand

MySay,

Haitians dont think for themselves. The worthless country is controlled by a handful of men. If Haitians wanted to grow their own food they would. Unfortunately they sit around in clay houses while their leaders live in mansions.

You dont know wtf your talking about. When you see some ahole man sitting on 5 bags of UN rice and hes charging people for it then you know what the real truth is. If we were really going to do something for the Haitians then we would bring our army home and send 50,000 troops into Haiti and we would take it over.

If you assume that every country is corrupt and controlled by rich people than your only choice is to pick the country that affords you the most freedoms.

Like I said "It's to early in the morning to be so stupid" Read the damn article so you can get the point "Stupid" Riceland rice was imported to Haiti out of greed for President Clintons Arkansas Rice producing friends.

You are so "Stupid" thinking that everyone is looking for a handout from the U.S. When the U.S. is responsible for causing the need for those hand outs.

You are obviously to "Stupid" to understand what you have read.

MySay,

Are you claiming that the United States caused the earthquake or are you blaming the United States for the way that black people act? If you can honestly sit here and say that black people dont bully each other than your a fool.

MySay were you even alive when Bill Clinton sent the aid to Haiti?

That cesspool of a country was in worse shape 20 years ago then it is after the earthquake. The United States sends aid to countries because they beg for it. And yes large American corporations profit from this philanthropy but thats because our country is controlled by large companies. If we can turn a profit by helping our neighbor then we will.

You act like Haiti was some sort of paradise before the horrible Americans came. You are a tool.

Lastly. So my comments dont seem so racist. Whites, Asians, and Hispanics all bully each other.

I suppose its human nature to climb over your neighbor to get the prize.

MySay-409723...........for someone pretty quick to call someone else stupid, you might take the time to learn the difference between to and too.

The revolution in Saint-Domingue unleashed a massive multiracial exodus: French Créole colonists fled with those slaves they still held, as did numerous free people of color, some of whom were also slaveholders and transported slaves with them.^[24] In 1809, nearly 10,000 refugees from Saint-Domingue arrived from Cuba, where they had first fled, to settle en masse in New Orleans.^[25] They doubled that city’s population and helped preserve its French language and culture for several generations. In addition, the newly arrived slaves added to the city's African and multiracial culture.^[26]

^{I would pay money to see Jesse Jackson explain why free black men in Haiti held other Africans as slaves. I would sell my house to see that.}

Haiti is vastly over populated and the climate and geography of their country prevents them from growing enough food to support the large number of people trying to live there. They need to bring in enough money from other industries like tourism so they can buy and import the food they need to feed themselves however a thriving tourism business is not likely with the current state of that country. My advice to Haitians is leave that over populated sh*t hole before you die there.

You arrogant "WHITE AMERICANS" anxiously add to the stupidity of the American notion this is still the greatest country on earth. You have a poor, hurricane stricken country who have NOTHING and yet they are telling you THEY DON'T WANT FOOD AND calling a spade a spade by telling you fools that YOUR food in inferior and all you can do is ask 'WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE"

Or try to shoot the messenger because you can't accept the truth of the message.

You people have gone from "Ignorance" to total "Stupidity" You fools don't even understand the depth of what it means to no longer be a nation who produces but relies on others for everything and you certainly don't understand what has happened to your rich agricultural industry.

Tariffs work. Global free trade is a disaster. The current model of global free trade has only been in place since the collapse of the Soviet Union and it is causing a global environmental disaster. Capitalism trashes the environment. It is like warfare. Crush the competition and maximize profit. And like in warfare, there are winners and losers, but after the war both are poorer because of it.

First hurricane Katrina was years ago and we are rebuilding and doing fine in New Orleans. Second America is still the worlds largest super power and not even China wants that to change. Third whenever some sh*tty little country like Haiti has a natural catastrophe they beg the USA to come rescue them, look at the recent earth quake in South America as a good example. Fourth people like the Haitians would die if it were not for the USA and that fact is what makes you so angry. You curse America and thank god for it's existence all in the same breath so f*ck you maybe we wont rush to the rescue after the next natural disaster and leave you to figure it out by yourself.

I gotta give Clinton points for publicly admitting he was wrong and apologizing.

Now if only Cheney and Bush would have the gonads to do so(which they don't)

"If farmers aren't being subsidized why is it that the folks who seem to be doing really well are the farmers.

I live in the country, in the midwest, and all the farmers that live around here drive brand new BIG suvs have beautiful BIG new houses and are constantly buying new equipment such as combines the size of a yacht, is that because business is bad? Help me understand"

I'm not sure why you think the farmers are doing so well, I can't tell you one that made any money last year & in today's local paper there was an article that said in 2009 the average income for a farm family was just over $18,000 that's way below the poverty level. Most familys have at least one person work off the farm so they can afford to farm, the house are big because most are old farm house, my MIL's house is pretty big, it's also a hundred years old. as for driving the big combines how do you propose you get the crops out of the fields without one? ours is 30something years old, if you were to look at it you would think it's pretty new, it's been well cared for, yet every fall it gets pulled out & we put money in it so we can get the corn from the field to the silo for feed for the cows, right now it needs a new engine, it caught fire & there isn't money to pay for a new one. - Farmers need something that can haul a load & supplies, you need a pick-up or SUV, don't have a choice

Maybe you should check the debt load of the farmers, bet it's higher than your house loans, then again I'd like to see you work 12+ hours days 365 days a year & make $18000 to take care of your family. If you think farmers are so well off why don't you become a farmer, do you have a few million laying around to buy the land & equipment...the ag banks are maxed & aren't loaning for Ag anymore, more & more farmers are being cut off every day

right now you are paid $14.97 per hundred minus $1.25 per hundred for shipping (yes farmers are the only ones that pay shipping to sell their product) minus promotion. leaving you with just over $13.00 per hundred. there is 8.6 pounds in every gallon so a hundred wieght is about 11 1/2 gallons in each hundred, you receive just over a dollar per gallon. cost of production on average is between $15 & $19 see a problem?

Get off your lazy azzes and put your country back together. Damn it, enough is enough. Stand up and do something for yourselves Haiti, it's time for the babysitters to go home.

nyfarmer clearly the expert here, nonhybrid seeds and peacable farming!! thats for gardens in san francisco not for hungry people in third world countries!! please listen to the expert,thank you nyfarmer!

I'm sure the Chileans aren't much better off. Funny that we never hear about their plight.

Hey Mister, That sounds like the same incentives offered to the citizens here." Have more kids and we'll pay you more, as a matter of fact just in case that's not good enough, beat this, we'll give you 500.00 for every new kid you plop out from now on."

Sounds about right.

I would like to see a study of the evolution of Africans in different countries. See how each group has evolved and the environment and circumstances that were influences.

In my opinion the first black republic is a failure.

In my opinion the first black republic is a failure.

That's what happens when the US wages proxy war against them since their founding.

ITT: Arrogant Americans ignorant of their own history.

Indeed corporate America at work once again.

And their "lover' the Government is standing by their side.

Jym:

very well stated.

I think you are confused, less than 1% of the farms in the US are NOT family owned. Farmers have been forced to grow larger, instead of the children going off to their own farms they are now joining their parents, thus the farm need to grow to support them. The low prices of that we receive for the food we produce also demands that farmers lower their input costs, you have to buy in bulk to save money, if you only have 30 cows like my great grandpa did you can't afford the highet input cost. Just because the farms are large doesn't mean it's not a family operations, if you took the time to meet the farm neighbors & understand what is going on you will be very suprised.

Farmers in the US are by no means rich, because the government likes to tax, they have keep the food prices low so people can afford it. Today we are receiving less for evey gallon of milk produced that we did 30 years ago, and the cost of production has increased. Small farmers are selling their farms because they can't afford to keep going further into debt to produce food. By giving the farmers a fair price for their products maybe we can pay the bills.

ny farmer.

who do you sell your milk to?

DFA

Ok, let me get this logic straight.

1) They prefer their local rice but it's too expensive so they don't buy it

2) They want import tariffs so that imported rice equals the cost of local rice

3) therefore once both prices are equalized the local rice will somehow become buyable?

I thought they said they couldn't afford the cost of the local rice even though they preferred it?

The question is who the "theys" are. I think the logic is as follows:

1. Most Haitians prefer their local rice, but it is too expensive so they don' t buy it.

2. Haitian rice farmers want import tariffs so that the cost of their rice equals the cost of local rice.

3. Some people hope that by stimulating the production of local rice, the price will come down and the rest of the country will now be able to afford to buy it.

I agree that the logic on step three is very weak. It would be like requiring all Americans to only buy produce at the local farmers' market because that is best for the local economy. It would work for some, but be a huge problem for most.

Someone who knows that the United States feed it's people genetically altered food. Haiti needs to say "NO THANKS" to import of corn from the U.S. and their Genetically engineered seed.

"Why not supply the Hatian people with non-hybrid seeds and educate them in peaceable farming, without the use of pesticides and herbicides"

That's a good way to keep the production down, and costs up. The hybrids have been developed to keep the plants from being killed from pests, thus limiting the need for pesticides and herbicides. Farmers are's making any money now, do you think they want to spend thousands of dollars more to spray the fields with something that isn't needed?

Kathy:

good point...you should check out Heifer International...that is exactly what their mission is. They do incredible work all over the world...and by doing exactly what you said, they empower local populations to take control of their own destinies.

Read the article and stop sounding like an ASS-HOLE

mysay,

You certainly like to call folks names.

Kathy, that is a very earth mother comment, but unfortunately if the world went totally organic lots of people would starve. The Haitian agricultural industry is pretty much non-existent.

The situation in Hispaniola "Haiti / Dominican Republic" is about the same as all the other former French colonies. People all the world starve to death every year. It almost never because the people can't feed themselves. Most always it is because of war, graft, corruption, or quite simply because it is to someones advantage for the people to die. It is not the world we hope for nor the world we were led to believe that we could expect. It is however the way things are and some things are beyond our ability to remedy.

I'll be the first the call you a name Mr. Correct. To bad that the people here are not protesting against the cheap imports of China who is constantly trying to import more and more food to this country.

This country is no longer a country which produces. Sad.

David:

so right. My father keeps saying the government should do something about what you are talking about, and scoffs at me when I take extreme measures to find shoes made in America (almost impossible now) or locally grown produce. I don't always succeed in finding what I want or need, but I do try. I am by no means rich, and it isn't cheap to do this, but I cannot simply turn a blind eye to what is happening for the sake of a little comfort and convenience.

Mr Wellman you are right, I grew up in a farming family and rode across the country on long car trips to see relatives. As we traveled along across several states, we saw all the fields planted and where the land was too poor to farm there were sheep, Goats, or cattle.

Drive across the country now and take a look at all the fallow fields. Look out at the open plains with nothing grazing on them. We are not feeding ourselves now and it has been happening for quite a while. If our Government doesn't' wake up, idiots like Chavez will be controlling our food supply. Most of our food now comes from South American countries. Doesn't' that make you feel as secure as you do about your food as you feel about your oil supplies?

What mistake was that?

You mean like Cheney and Bush did? Oh right. they haven't yet(and probably never will).

When exactly did US imperialism destroy Haiti? You mean before they had their revolution and fought a war with the US and the US gave them their independence? Hmmm, might want to think again. Hey, hows Puerto Rico doing compared to its neighbors? Damn imperialism messing them up to?

Rosencratz, you need to go back to high school and refresh your history classes. This time skip the whotoblame chapter and just skim for facts.

Mr Rosencratz, you might learn to research before you make statements like that. The US is responsible for lots of bad crap in the world but not this one

The "Do Gooders" are doing the same thing to the United States. Wake up people.

IWonder:

clinton greatly improved my opinion of him by finally admitting to one of his mistakes.

Same here. I was pleasently surprised.

I don't know if anyone will ever know President Johnson's true motivations in launching the war on poverty, but it's safe to say that the twisted and perverted way in which it was implemented did much to undermine whatever laudable goals he may have had in mind. Had the same amount of money been spent on substantive education with an eye toward helping the unfortunate become more productive and therefore self-reliant, we might be living in a far different country today. The fact of the matter is that the money was mostly used to maintain the patriarchal state of helplessness that is a holdover from plantation society, as well as to perpetuate unflattering racial stereotypes for unsavory ends. And yet, there are no shortage of those who continue to blame the victims in this cultural debacle.

My old great uncle once said, " if I had any thing to give, I would give it to the richest man in town". (actually he named a man who was considered the richest man)

Can you understand what he was saying?

That he had a sycophantic attitude toward the inordinately wealthy? In that respect, he was in line with the beliefs of most Americans.

In order to foster an independent agricultural system, at some point, that is exactly what may be required. Implementation could, however, be phased in so as to minimize the pain, and it's also more than likely that the farmers themselves will need some assistance just to get a viable operation started.

Before I'm assaulted for my unabashed liberalism, I'd just remind everyone of the the old saying, "Give someone a fish...". As long as we are spending money to help Haiti (and I see no reason why a nation so blessed as ours should not do so), why not do it in a way that will benefit them well into the future? The only real difference is between a knee-jerk reflexive response and a well-thought-out and reasoned approach, but the total cost need not be any greater.

Good point, David Wellman. Dogma is no substitute for the competent design and implementation of public policies, national or international. I also agree with some posts that call attention to fast population growth in Haiti.

Total fertility rate in Haiti continues to be the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti is a nation whose children are left in large numbers out of school, therefore without any future. The conjoined twins - extreme poverty and fast population growth -, as my late Haitian-born friend, Charles Antoine, used to refer to them, have marked that country's sad trajectory.

I won't argue that the problems Haiti faces are multi-faceted, and that simplistic solutions will therefore likely be counterproductive.

My paternal grandmother in SE Missouri had eight children, all born into extreme poverty - this was fairly common at the time, because families essentially had to generate their own labor pool. With rising income came a marked drop in the birth rate, as none of her children had more than four offspring, and her grandchildren have topped out at two.

I'd say much of the challenge would be to educate and convince the Haitians that things can be better, and that it might be in their best interests to entertain alternatives. There is a long history of exploitation and the resultant distrust to overcome first, as well as providing a concrete method of producing revenue that will engage a large number of Haitians, but failing that, the country will remain mired in the cycle of poverty. The Haitians would seem to be motivated to explore alternatives, and there is no shortage of human ingenuity to draw on, so I suspect that institutional barriers (both internal and external) will prove far more intractable than cultural ones.

Ever notice the common thread with all failed states who can't be helped with aid? It's always their religious beliefs getting in the way of God's reality.

Until they throw of the slave shackles of their wrongly held beliefs, they'll never be able to deal with the real world.

Do you really believe they keep overpopulating like rats in New York City because of any deep "Beliefs" about ANYTHING, or because it feels good at the time?

new haven.....the beliefs prevent any type of birth control education. They were further ahead with voodo than they are with the present beliefs !

The problem with Haiti is far deeper and shared by so many other third-world countries.

The critical issue is deciding what is cause and what is effect in places like this.

Nature and history is not the cause of their unproductive capabilities, it's corruption and sloth.

You can send all the money and help you want and it won't do a thing until they have a significant portion of their population who is trustworthy and hard-working. That's the difference between rebuilding places like Germany and Japan versus places like Afghanistan, Somalia, Haiti and the like.

What they need first is not welfare, what they need first is the desire to be and work better.
There's a reason that Haiti had a medium earthquake and 200,000 people died as opposed to Chile which had a major earthquake and only 1,000 died.

You can send all the money and help you want and it won't do a thing until they have a significant portion of their population who is trustworthy and hard-working. That's the difference between rebuilding places like Germany and Japan versus places like Afghanistan, Somalia, Haiti and the like.

That's the fact, Jack.

Well we didn't, we already knew. The people who should have learned something, liberals, didn't!

You are insulting american farmers to say that our food is inferior to other countries. American farmers abide by much higher standards when raising food compaired to other countries. Many places in South America & Asia are using chemicals that were removed from the US market 30+ years ago, entire crops were distroyed in the US because there was no way to stop invaders, honey bees were wiped out in mass numbers from a mite, because the only thing that would stop it was banned in the US at the same time a tanker of Honey from CHINA came into a US port, it was one of less than half of one precent of inports that was actually tested, it came back positive for that chemical. The honey was then sent back to China, they then mix that honey in with other honey, this time it wasn't tested & made it into the US market. It was then found in a few plants around the US.

Keep brining in cheap food from other countries & you can run all the farmers out of the US too

No, I am insulting the American Government who allows the Genetically altered food on our tables. Obviously you don't know about what is going on in the agriculture industry. Corporations own the industry not farmers and this government subsidize the farmers to grow Corn and Soy Beans which are the largest genetically altered food on the American shelves.

You have NO variety in your food, check the label to see "High Fructose Corn Syrup" Do you think this product is grown on the farms? I don't think so. It's put together by corporations.

Were you aware that there are 15 countries who refuse to except food from the United States because of the poor quality of the food? Were yo aware that the nations who do accept the food only if the food is labeled "GMOs" Genetically Modified foods.

Were you aware that the corporations fought the citizens and various organizations here in the United States to avoid putting the labels on "GMO" food?

Didn't you read the article. RICELAND RICE IS INFERIOR TO THE LOCAL GROWN RICE. Where does that rice come from? Uh, the United States farmers. What do you not understand?

Become informed about the food you are eating.

ny farmer:

I'm glad to know that you have solved the problem of the disappearing honey bee since the scientific community is still scratching its collective head over what has happened (two theories of which include the direct involvement of pesticides...one in which pesticides have weakened the bees' immune systems to a point to where they cannot fight off mites, and another in which a pesticide is designed to introduce a fungus into a pest's system, and of course the bee gets this same fungus)...perhaps you should share your findings with the press.

I was not talking about the latest whipout of bees, before that farms were having there hives wipes out by the mites, this was verifyed because the bees were found in the hives, farmers were just starting to recover for this loss with the disappearing accured. as far as the pesticides cause the issue sounds like you have been reading an extreamist web site becase for the last 20 years there is not a single chemical in the US that is approved for bees

maybe you should check your information. http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef608.asp I can verify mine

and the press already knows http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070426113951.htm

Ny Farmer:

I've not been reading "extreamist" web sites. Who said that the chemical was for bees? I don't doubt that you've read something, but considering some of the misinformation that you've put on this site (no subsidies for farmers) and the fact that you make the assumption that I was talking about a "chemical" for bees when I said nothing of the sort, makes me doubt the trustworthiness of your reading comprehension skills. Perhaps you should think a bit deeper before drawing conclusions.

Actually my reading comprehension skills are very good, My information has come from several bee farmers, Unlike you I’ve spent my life trying to help the general public understand agriculture and trying to save the future of the farms unlike you not an activist that is trying to Americans that farmers are not only the richest people in the us (other post) but all the chemicals we use are killing them, over 75% of the chemicals used in the US are used on home lawns

Maybe you should update yourself to the 2008 farm bill things changed

ny farmer:

I've just looked at the 2008 farm bill. Perhaps I'm missing it, but I still see subsidies for commodities.

Also, if you look up the wikipedia article on the 2008 farm bill, it states that the bill "continues the United States' long history of agricultural subsidy"...

As I said before...you should pay more attention when you read.

Thank you, now continue to educated some of the fools on this post.

The US gov't was responsible for wiping out much of the population of small pigs that Haitians had relied on as a protein source for decades, replacing them with large Americans pigs that are unsuited for the climate and the culture. There are many other examples of how we have undermined the self-reliance of the Haitians (and others) in the furthering of capitalism.

It's a tenet of capitalism that efficiency of production is paramount, and so specialization is always emphasized over self-reliance. In a developed nation such as the US, the shortcomings of this (resources wasted on overly elaborate methods of food production, lower quality, displacement of native ecosystems, etc.) are glossed over by the apparent surplus and ready availability of a variety of foodstuffs, but in a country like Haiti, this is not likely to be the most appropriate method. Without trying to appear condescending, it's far more likely that localized systems of production, geared to local markets, and incorporating recycling of waste back into production are more in line with the level of technology available. As I've pointed out elsewhere, Cuba has been very successful at this, as have Vietnam and other Asian nations, so I don't feel I'm being unrealistic here. A system the Haitians cannot maintain for themselves is no solution at all.

The fools posting know nothing about that "pig" incident. Nor do they know that when the United States was breeding genetically engineered corn that of all places Mexico still had a pure form of corn until they were encouraged to buy U.S. seed because it was cheaper. Once that happened, Mexico crops of corn were infiltrated with 'GMO" corn. Thank you high standards, superior America.

I no longer walk in grocery stores with my head high in the air claiming "I will only buy food labeled made in U.S.A." I am totally afraid of that label.

MySay:

try organic.

Great Post! The Fed's turned the spigot back on for the San Juaquin Farmers, although only 25 % in time for the Health Care Vote. Water you see when controlled by Govt. can be a weapon and controll that only self sufficiency and self reliance can hope to challenge!

Even people who live in urban and suburban areas in the US are learning to farm in their backyards,

My father had a garden in a city that would turn heads to everyone who seen it over the fence. It was not large in area but had an over abundance of vegetables. If you are stuck with limited ground area, use cylinders with notches (half moon shape)cut into the sides, fill the cylinder with soil and plant your seeds in the cut-outs, as they sprout you will need to trim them more than a plant that is growing directly upward from the ground. Less than half of the plant will be without light since you will have to tie all plants to the cylinder to keep them growing upward and saving ground space, you can grow 4-8 plants in the same ground area space as 1 plant using this method. If you are to grow 4 plants this way it will be more than the amount of two plants grown from the ground, 2 plants growing using this method you will harvest a bit more than that of 1 ground plant. Great stuff for the city farmers, good luck.

Can we all say TARP and Recovery Act?