30291: Karshan re: 30243: Karshan and poison rice imports (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: MKarshan@aol.com

This was originally mailed to Bob on March 29th (since then many wonderful
posts on this subject have come through):

Please folks, let's refer clearly to what rice is what because this is
getting confusing. Rice grown in Haiti is HAITIAN rice.  Most rice  found in 
the
marketplaces in Haiti is FOREIGN RICE. You can find bags of  local HAITIAN rice
in some supermarkets and perhaps in the marketplace as well  (not sure).

I am getting very confused over the posts following my post  about UNITED
STATES GROWN RICE IN SOME SOUTHERN STATES HAVING A HIGH  CONTENT OF ARSENIC
BECAUSE THE LAND WAS ORIGINALLY USED TO GROW COTTON.

The article said that it wasn't necessarily a threat to Americans because
they don't generally eat that much rice.

I posted that because Haiti is a large IMPORTER of rice from around the
world, a large amount coming from the US and I was wondering if a large percent
of it may be coming from some of these Southern states where arsenic levels are
 high because Haitians DO consume a large amount of rice and at that rate
arsenic  would be a threat to people's health.

Also, typically foods not desirable in the US are very often the foods that
are exported to Haiti such as dark meat chicken which is unpopular in the US
of  late.

Haiti itself produces very little rice, although President Preval worked
hard to try to increase its production during his last presidency. It is true
that Haiti used to produce cotton decades ago, but don't know if they use the
same land to grow cotton today, and don't know if arsenic would be a residue
there now or ever.

Rice grown in Haiti (HAITIAN RICE) ends up being expensive at the  market and
I don't believe that it is exported out of Haiti.  Most Haitians  prefer to
buy foreign rice that has been imported into Haiti.

Testing foreign rice in various market places in Haiti would be a good idea
to see whether any rice imported from the US containing high levels of arsenic
 are reaching the Haitian market. And many thanks to that Corbetteer (Stuart
Leiderman) who has contacted the researcher and arranged for this to happen!
This is another example of the value of the Corbett list!!!

However, as I remember it, (rice) companies in the US who export rice
regularly to Haiti, generally buy rice from various growers throughout the US 
and
claim for tax/incentive/excemption/subsidy purposes that they sell at a loss
to markets in Haiti and then receive hugh USAID and tax break support from the
US. There should be a paper trail on all this in terms of what farmers they
are  buying from in the US and from that it could be determined whether some of
these  farmers are located in those Southern states mentioned in the research
 piece.  However, there are many rice deals always going on in Haiti and it
would be hard to determine via paper trail all the sources of rice entering
Haiti.

Therefore, it would be good to test the rice being sold at several  different
marketplaces in Haiti as a survey to determine if there is a presence  of
arsenic. Rice found at the various marketplaces will not be limited  to 
American
rice. It will most likely include rice from Pakistan, etc.

I doubt though that much Haitian rice will be found in the marketplaces  (but
then I'm not sure). Also, if you want to include samples of HAITIAN RICE
(rice grown in Haiti) that would be good too to determine whether it contains
traces of arsenic as well and to compare it with the foreign rice.  To test
Haitian rice, I suggest it be taken straight from the bags sold in the
supermarkets.

However, again, the purpose of posting the article on arsenic traces in  some
US Southern states' rice was to inquire whether Haiti may be receiving this
same rice from abroad which would then pose a health risk to people in Haiti
who  are typically consumers of large amounts of rice daily.  Haiti is known as
 a very high rice consumer, although lots of that rice is often stockpiled in
 warehouses.

Also, I don't believe there is any indication that the US would be pulling
rice with traces of arsenic off the US shelves because as was pointed out in
the  article the level of trace arsenic in US rice from some Southern states
does not necesssarily rice to a danger level given the small amount of rice
consumed by the average American. (Of course, it could be of concern  to some
populations in the US who do eat large quantities of rice.)

But, (and this is why I posted the article) because Haitians in Haiti  are
large consumers of rice, this could be a cause of concern if this  rice is
reaching Haiti. I have no idea whether it is reaching Haiti or not.

Stuart, have you arranged for rice to actually be collected and shipped for
testing?

Michelle Karshan

Thank you also to Stephen Jacob for his research that he posted:

According to a few sites, Haiti imports most of it's rice from the  US.  As
of
2005, the US accounted for nearly 50% of Haiti's total  imports so you could
figure that most of Haiti's food comes from the USA  also.   Earlier data
shows
that US typically sends roughly 200,000  metric tons of rice to Haiti
annually.

The following link has some more  information about Haitian rice  production:

http://www.american.edu/TED/haitirice.htm





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