01.15.09 kulturnatib

Geophagy
One of the the characters in Gabriel García Márquez's 'A Thousand Years of Solitude' is Rebeca.

Among her memorable traits or quirks that is supposed to be among the contributors to the 'magic' in the magic realism of this book and the general writing style of Marquez is that she eats earth or soil.

In an address to a group of writers, Marquez said that while his most popular works have been labeled magic realism it is really just simple, everyday realism he writes about. He cited letters he has received from all over the world about personal testimony to events in his books that has really happened to them or to other people, soil eating among them.

Technically this is called geophagy and is indeed being resorted to by a growing number of people. It is, however, not so much magic as it is tragic.

The newspaper we get everyday is running a series on the worldwide food crises. There are the grim statistics, graphs, pictures, illustrations, analyses, feature stories, etc., that make for an interesting and pleasant (visually, at least) read – the subject is dire enough, why not make it a bit more palatable?

One of the feature stories immediately caught my attention, reminding me of Rebeca. Only this time it wasn't just about an individual but groups of people or entire communities.

A search later in the internet revealed that this story has been carried by most major newspapers and news organizations worldwide. Yet for the paper we subscribe to and for most people here the feature could have a special resonance or point of empathy as the country in the story is francophone, a country where French or some version of it is the lingua franca.

Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. Alongside crushing poverty is widespread hunger made even worse by the international food crises that has seen food imports becoming more expensive. This led to food riots last summer and the eventual fall of the government.

The poor in Haiti have now resorted more and more to eating soil or clay. Galettes d'argile, they are called or clay cookies.

While clay is the main ingredient which gives it its mostly yellowish hue making them look like regular cookies, they also contains salt and vegetable shortening, which make it a bit more expensive than free but way more affordable than the imported staples.

These are considered one of Haiti's traditional remedies mostly for pregnant women and children. A source of calcium for the former and an antacid for the latter.

Still, the health impact of this food is under scrutiny – Gerald Callahan, an immunology professor at Colorado State University who has studied geophagy suggests that dirt can also strengthen the immunity of fetuses in the womb to certain diseases – yet, it is widely accepted that relying on this alone can lead to serious malnutrition.

An accompanying whole page infographic showed the extent of the world wide food crises. In absolute numbers, Asia – with India and China in the lead – is experiencing the most critical situations of hunger.

The Philippines doesn't figure in this map. Not yet. It doesn't mean that there is no hunger in the Philippines. It just hasn't reached critical levels.

But given the continuing and increasing obsession of the Arroyo government with changing the constitution, the continuing scandals in almost all branches of government, the deepening international economic crisis, the tipping point might come sooner than later.

Then we will have our own version of creative cuisine. The ingredients could be different and dirt cheap won't probably have dirt in it, but just the same it will be desperate.