Recently, former President Clinton acknowledged that food policies he instituted in Haiti during his terms in office were a colossal failure. Haiti was encouraged to end rice production and outsource their major food staple so they could instead concentrate on building their market economy for the future. But as the January 12th earthquake has shown, this policy has left them completely dependent on foreign aid to sustain them during this crisis. Millions are now faced with severe food shortages. Reversing this policy and correcting this situation will take time as Haitians once again learn to become stewards of their own food system. Without this, they remain at the mercy of others.
But as we watch this human-created catastrophe play out in Haiti, did it ever occur to you that a similar policy has been operating in the US for the last 60 years? Today, just 2% of the population provides the food for 98% of the US. To do this, we have transitioned from thousands of small farms spread throughout the country to a few mega-industrial food producers. We too are now dependent. Any major crisis occur that would disrupt food distribution for several weeks and we will look much like Haiti. Former Homeland Security Director, Tom Ridge, was once quoted as saying he was surprised that terrorists had not attacked our food system—it was by far the easiest system to disrupt because it was so centralized. Once done, it would create havoc.
