I dont fully remember - but something to do with American farmers being allowed to import their rice into Haiti?
Yes, the local crop became 'too expensive' as the country was flooded with cheaper imports. The imports were cheaper because they were subsidized by their governments and did not reflect the real cost of growing rice. This is an old problem however but to a large measure has contributed to the current problem in terms of food supply.
The current problem is that nothing will grow now because the land has become impoverished. People do not have the wherewithall to grow food any longer (seeds, water, low-tech implements etc). Being able to grow their food will of course help countries like Haiti, but the trees were chopped down. The trees supplied organic material and fertilizer to keep the soil bearing well, the trees supplied shade to keep moisture in the soil and protect the watershed, the trees supplied soil stabilization etc etc). Once the trees went, the land became impoverished and the rich topsoil is washed away with even a little rain. Once the land is impoverished, many hundreds of thousands or millions of trees are needed before you can create fertile soil again.
Some people will shoot me for this, but a few Cuban agronomists need to go and teach Haiti what to do with their soil to enrich it again. These people are eating at least. They don't have televisions and they don't have modern infrastructure and this is not a shame but if anyone is able to withstand a shortage of food, it is Cuba. They already know how to low-tech food growing.
And in amongst all this doom and gloom I came across this article this morning from the BBC: " ... the global downturn might be still more severe than it is currently predicting, and says that there is a one in four chance of a "global recession" when world growth falls below 3%."
BBC NEWS | Business | IMF slashes world growth forecast
People in countries like Haiti are facing an increasingly grim future. The IMF in this report warns: "that the spillover will more severe in Latin America or in countries linked to the dollar, which has declined sharply on world currency markets."