Marcia Biggs:
Just after his inauguration, President Trump paused all foreign aid for 90 days. Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Oversight shut down USAID shortly thereafter, writing on the X platform that he spent the weekend feeding it into the wood chipper.
In-kind food shipments to organizations like the WFP are supposed to be protected by the emergency food assistance waiver. But the abrupt dismantling of USAID has created chaos, putting at risk shipments of food not already in the pipeline. Development projects like Albert Pierre’s aren’t covered by the waiver.
He says he was supposed to receive a transfer in funds from USAID by the end of January, but the money never came and the project was canceled. He hasn’t had to shut his mill just yet, but he’s slowed down operations, and he’s looking to other organizations for help.
He still believes that the way to make Haiti food independent is a delicate balance between increasing tariffs slowly so that American rice isn’t dirt-cheap, while also investing in infrastructure and providing loans to local farmers.
