Why are they eating mud in Haiti?

Visitors to the shanty towns of Haiti, the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, will find something unusual in the markets. It's a dry, yellow, round food product, about the size of a digestive biscuit. 

They're mud cakes, made from clay, salt, oil and water. Eat one, and you'll keep hunger at bay for a few hours. 

In Haiti, the market for mud cakes is booming. With the price of food soaring, but with wages static or falling, the poor are forced into desperation. Haiti finds itself at the whip end of a food crisis that stretches around the world.

Globally, food prices rose 55 per cent from June 2007 to February 2008. In March alone, the price of rice went up 87 per cent - and rice accounts for one fifth of all calories eaten on Earth. The prices of all staples have soared and are set to rise for the next decade. 

There's a fistful of reasons why prices are so high. More...

See also: What are we eating? The truth about food...

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And this: Iraq, where the poor and hungry sell their kidneys to buy food..