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Some Haitians Are Still Eating Mud And Dirt Cookies

Some people proclaim on social media ‘I’m so poor’, because they couldn’t afford to go to this new, hip restaurant this weekend or they’re a little behind on rent. But how poor is poor? Haiti has relied heavily on food imports mainly from the U.S. Because of the soaring food prices, food simply became unaffordable to majority of Haiti’s population.

According to news, the small island-nation of Haiti is still eating mud cookies to survive, even five years after the earthquake. The cookies — simply made of dirt, butter and salt, hold almost no nutritional value, but managed to keep most of Haiti’s starving population alive.

The cookies remedied constant hunger pangs and starvation. Thousands of pregnant Haiti women have relied on the mud cakes for calcium and nutrition for years. At first glance it looks just like any pottery business, but they’re actually making food. Locals ‘harvest’ the dirt filed with bacteria and human waste. In a dusty courtyard Women mold clay, water and a little salt into hundreds of little cookies and lay them out to harden under the sweltering Caribbean sun.

Yes, these small platters are not molded to hold food — they are food. The mud and dirt cookies are sold in Haiti’s numerous slums. In the biggest and worst slums, Cite Soleil, mud cookies is a major industry and income earner. These dirt cakes are the only inflation-proof food available to the poor.

Can you imagine being that hungry that you have to resort to buying and eating mud?