Founded in 1973, the Papaye Peasant Movement (MPP) is Haiti’s largest grassroots organization, and also its most successful in addressing the problems of food production, land protection and viable peasant cooperatives.  MPP’s 37-year experience in food production and peasant organizing could be the basis for a viable solution to the crisis in Haiti.

Our Current Situation

Food riots erupted across Haiti in April 2008, in response to a dramatic rise in the price of basic foodstuff like cooking oil and rice that the country is now forced to import.  This crisis was made worse by last year’s hurricane season (Gustav, Hanna and Ike) highlighting Haiti’s environmental degradation.  Most of the crops were wiped out by inundation, and unless Haiti’s impoverished peasants receive urgent help in getting the seeds they need to replant their fields, the country is facing the real possibility of widespread famine in the coming months.  Meanwhile, by its own admission, the Haitian government lacks the resources to meet the population’s most basic needs.  Is Haiti irretrievably condemned to man-made famine and ecological disaster?