There could be at least two reasons why U.S. agencies plan to throw a million pounds of peanuts into Haiti.
This Wall Street Journal author claims that subsidies (paid to U.S. farmers to grow peanuts) have encouraged too much production, so they're trying to get rid of "hundreds of millions" of pounds of peanuts - evidence of the department's failed farm policy. The other possible motive is that USDA and USAID just want to help--and get points for generosity.
Neither motive justifies this plan, neither a cya cover-up nor a desire to help.
That's because they haven't asked the primary question, "What effect will this have?" As in medicine, the first principle ought to be "First, do no harm."
"One of the leaders of Haiti’s largest rural organization, the Peasant Movement of Papaye, denounced the peanut donation as “a plan of death” for the country’s farmers.
No comments:
Post a Comment