How to Make Mud Cookies (Haiti)

[bicentennial_baby]

Mud cookies are all the rage in Haiti today—a rage sparked by soaring food prices. The cookies, a traditional remedy for hunger pangs and a source of calcium for pregnant women, have become a staple because food is simply unaffordable for impoverished Haitians. With food prices showing no signs of leveling off, more and more Haitians are likely to rely on the biscuits for their nutritional needs—and the rage is likely to grow.

The cookies are easy to make. The main ingredient, an edible clay from Haiti’s Central Plateau, is abundant, and salt and vegetable shortening are added in quantities that vary according to affordability. The cookies are then left out in the sun to bake. Besides being filling, they are dirt-cheap.

At least they have been up until now. The clay that is used to make the cookies is rapidly going up in price due to increasing demand. It now costs about five dollars to make 100 cookies, so even the “cookie jar” is out of reach of many Haitians, who make an average of about two dollars a day.

While it may seem that Haitians have reached rock bottom, they may, in fact, be sitting on a gold mine. Through the alchemy of comparative advantage, their sludge-filled biscuits could become their most valuable commodity, propel the country into the ranks of rich nations, and even provide a lasting solution to world hunger. After all, the logic of shifting more resources into the production of these biscuits is as “impeccable” as Lawrence Summers’ argument for moving dirty industries from rich to poor countries.

Think of it. Clever marketers could label the exported cookies “organic” and “low-cal.” Publicity campaigns could make favorable comparisons with Twinkies in terms of nutritive value without violating any truth-in-advertising regulations. Bakeries could diversify their offerings: mud pastries, mud quiches, mud rolls, mud scones, and so on. Franchising could be hugely lucrative. Soon, door-to-door deliveries of no-dough donuts could displace Dunkin’ Donuts’ delicacies. To steal market share from the famous franchise, marketers could mimic the name of the chain: how about “Muck-in-Donuts”? Sales experts from McDonald’s could be brought in to coach vendors on the correct way of saying, “Would you like flies with that?”

It’s a win-win situation, really. Haiti could climb out of poverty through increased export revenues, and businesses could even boost revenue by selling their carbon credits, since the baking process relies exclusively on solar energy. Production costs would subsequently come down, making the cookies more affordable.

More here: http://www.dollarsandsense.org/archives/2008/0708dufour.html

[RNdaSilva]

1. Will Cindy announce her very own recipe?

Warning! Baking cookies could be hazardous to your health. Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

[glowing]

2. The pregnancy supplement alone would make it a boom.. But as usual,

a "cheap" remedy for Haitians today would be bought out by mega-corps who would make the profit due to govt greed and a "cheap" mud cookie would become equal to buying gold for those who are impoverished and would actually need it to live.