Undated: (Bon Bon de Terres, the Haitian Dirt Cookie Made from Clay, Salt, Sugar, and Shortening, Consumed Primarily by the Poor to Fill Empty Stomachs, a Pr…

Undated: (Bon Bon de Terres, the Haitian Dirt Cookie Made from Clay, Salt, Sugar, and Shortening, Consumed Primarily by the Poor to Fill Empty Stomachs, a Practice Rooted in the Ancient Human Tradition of Geophagy but Weaponized by Western Media as a Symbol of Haitian Misery): Bon bon de terres are cookies made from clay-based mud mixed with water, salt, sugar, and vegetable shortening, then baked in the sun. They have almost no nutritional value. The people who eat them are overwhelmingly poor, especially children, and the reason is straightforward: they are cheap enough to fill an empty stomach when nothing else is available. Western media has fixated on these cookies as a symbol of Haitian wretchedness, but the practice of eating earth, known as geophagy, is ancient and global. Many non-Western societies regard it as beneficial, even medicinal. The difference in Haiti is context: bon bon de terres exist at the intersection of a shattered agricultural economy, centuries of externally imposed debt, and development structures that have systematically failed the rural poor. The women who make and sell these cookies in the slums of Port-au-Prince purchase their clay in bulk from the Hinche region, which is considered to produce the best quality dirt. Development workers tend to frame the practice as a health problem. It is more accurately understood as a symptom of an economic system that has never prioritized feeding Haitian people.