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WORLD NEWSSaturday 16 April 2016

Donation of surplus peanuts from US dismays Haiti farmersÂ

DAVID McFADDEN eke out a living: free pea- necessity or a counterpro- ministration to stop surplus peanuts go only to the tar-
Associated Press nuts arriving from the U.S. as ductive gesture. “dumping” on Haiti, the U.S. geted children, said Matt
MIREBALAIS, Haiti (AP) — humanitarian aid. Critics say agricultural sur- government and the U.N. Herrick, communications
The barefoot farmer over- “Foreign peanuts can only plus aid and heavily subsi- food agency are defend- director with the U.S. Agri-
sees three teenage workers make things harder for us,” dized food imports do more ing the aid program, which culture Department.
they say represents only 1.4 Herrick said the argument
A vendor sells peanuts in Croix-des-Bossales market in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. A recently an- percent of Haiti’s average that the U.S. should simply
nounced plan to ship 500 metric tons of surplus American peanuts to help feed 140,000 malnour- annual peanut production. source Haitian peanuts
ished schoolchildren in Haiti has set off a fierce debate over whether such food aid is a humanitar- They say critics don’t take doesn’t take into consid-
ian necessity or a counterproductive gesture. into account how dismal eration the fact that the
Haitian harvests have been local supply has a high
( AP Photo/Dieu Nalio Chery) and how badly struggling incidence of aflatoxin, a
children need more nutri- carcinogenic fungus that
as they attack weeds with said Merilus, whose organ- harm than good by under- tion. As many as 30 percent grows on moldy peanuts.
spades in a sunbaked field ic farm in central Haiti is cutting local farmers and of Haitian youngsters suffer While the USDA is funding
of peanut plants, a vital plowed by oxen and main- pushing the hemisphere’s from chronic malnutrition, research into the use of lo-
cash crop often grown on tained without pesticides poorest nation farther from and the cumulative impact cal peanuts in emergency
Haiti’s marginal farmland. or chemical fertilizers only self-sufficiency. of a three-year drought is rations and school feed-
If he’s lucky, Francois Meri- because he could never “This program does nothing so severe that Haiti is fac- ing programs, he said for
lus will reap a meager dream of affording them. to boost capacity in Haiti ing “unprecedented food now “the only factory in
harvest amid a lengthy A recently announced plan and does nothing to ad- insecurity,” the U.N. Office Haiti that produces pea-
drought that has shriveled to ship 500 metric tons of dress consistent food inse- for the Coordination of Hu- nut-based food rations to
yields and worsened Hai- surplus American peanuts curity,” said Oxfam Ameri- manitarian Affairs says. address the current health
ti’s chronic hunger. Now to help feed 140,000 mal- ca senior researcher Marc “If this donation arrives in and nutrition crisis has rou-
the subsistence farmer is nourished schoolchildren Cohen. Haiti, it is doubtful it will tinely had to import afla-
dismayed by what he be- in Haiti has set off a fierce While an online petition is make any difference to toxin-free peanuts.”
lieves could be the latest debate over whether such circulating calling for Presi- the economy, but for sure The donation from the
challenge to his ability to food aid is a humanitarian dent Barack Obama’s ad- it will make a difference American peanut stock-
in improving the diets of pile, which saw an influx of
the most vulnerable chil- a whopping 113,167 met-
dren attending schools,” ric tons from U.S. farmers
said Alejandro Chicheri, a last year, is being made in
U.N. World Food Program coordination with Haiti’s in-
spokesman. terim government. Senior
The humanitarian pro- officials at Haiti’s agricul-
gram calls for packaged, ture ministry and its food
dry-roasted peanuts from security unit declined to
a vast U.S. stockpile to comment.
be distributed as morning The peanut contribution
snacks to youngsters in rural is a minuscule addition to
schools. Over 600 schools the billions of U.S. dollars
are already receiving daily in assistance that have
hot meals with donated flowed into Haiti aimed at
U.S. bulgur wheat, green promoting stability, health
peas and vegetable oil. and prosperity. The U.S. has
To prevent leakage into the long been the largest do-
Haitian marketplace, the nor of foreign aid that Haiti
U.S. is designing a monitor- is dependent on.
ing program with the U.N.
food agency to ensure the Continued on page 27

US bars government employees from traveling to AcapulcoÂ

PETER ORSI is located and which has last year, according to borhoods along the city’s available. That’s up from 95
Associated Press been a flashpoint of drug government statistics. For seaside boulevard. killings during the same two
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The violence. all of Guerrero, there were In late February, a rov- months in 2015, but lower
U.S. government on Friday American government em- 2,106 killings, a 33 percent ing saleswoman was shot than the murder rate seen
barred its employees from ployees previously could increase over the previous dead in broad daylight at last summer when 107 peo-
traveling to the Mexican go to Acapulco as long as year. Condesa beach. Earlier in ple were killed in August
resort city of Acapulco, they traveled by air instead The violence peaked the month another victim, alone.
where a rise in homicides of land. They are still al- around summer in Acapul- a man, was killed in the Guerrero is the only Mexi-
attributed to drug gangs lowed to visit the Guerrero co, but murder rates con- same area. can state for which the
has made it one of the state resorts of Ixtapa and tinue to be high and have And in January, another State Department has a
world’s deadliest cities in Zihuatanejo if they fly. even become common roving salesman was fatally near-total travel ban for
recent years. Famous in decades past in tourist zones near the shot on the sands of Hornos U.S. government employ-
The new travel guidelines as a playground for Hol- beach. beach by a man who then ees, although it warns peo-
posted online by the State lywood stars and other Last month, on Good Fri- escaped on a Jet Ski. ple to “exercise caution
Department extended a American tourists, Aca- day, the dismembered There were 139 killings in in” or “defer nonessential
ban that already covered pulco, a Pacific Coast city bodies of two men were Acapulco in January-Feb- travel to” other parts of the
nearly the entire state of of about 700,000 residents, discovered in plastic bags ruary 2016, the most recent country that are afflicted
Guerrero, where Acapulco registered 902 homicides and an ice chest in neigh- months for which figures are by drug violence.q