National Geographic: Haiti Soil
By Joel K. Bourne, Jr., National Geographic, September 2008 The problem, says ecologist and activist Sasha Kramer, is that these days Haitian farmers can't sell enough mangoes to afford imported rice. To boost food production, Kramer and colleagues founded Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), a nonprofit group that builds composting toilets in rural communities to get much needed organic matter and fertility back into fields. "With the current hunger crisis, it's very clear," says Kramer, an adjunct professor at the University of Miami. "If Haitians had more local production, they would not be so vulnerable to imported food prices."