The small island nation of Haiti relies heavily on food imports, but with prices soaring, some Haitians are resorting to eating mud. see pictures....
The cookies -- made of dirt, butter and salt -- hold little nutritional value, but manage to keep Haiti's poor alive
He is an 11-year-old boy named Cajeunes, showing his
dirt-streaked tongue after eating a mud cookie in Cite Soleil
At first sight the business resembles a thriving pottery. In a dusty courtyard women mould clay and water into hundreds of little platters and lay them out to harden under the Caribbean sun.The craftsmanship is rough and the finished products are uneven. But customers do not object. This is Cité Soleil, Haiti's most notorious slum, and these platters are not to hold food. They are food.
Brittle and gritty - and as revolting as they sound - these are "mud cakes". For years they have been consumed by impoverished pregnant women seeking calcium, a risky and medically unproven supplement, but now the cakes have become a staple for entire families.
It is not for the taste and nutrition - smidgins of salt and margarine do not disguise what is essentially dirt, and the Guardian can testify that the aftertaste lingers - but because they are the cheapest and increasingly only way to fill bellies.
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