A view from Haiti, one of the most vulnerable countries in the region to climate change alongside Venezuela, both with limited resources to respond effectively, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on July 12, 2025. In Haiti, this vulnerability goes beyond hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes, and is deeply rooted in extreme poverty, rising insecurity, state neglect, and rapid environmental degradation. In the streets of Port-au-Prince, daily survival is a constant challenge. Markets operate under dire conditions, with shopkeepers selling amid garbage, starving children wandering the area, and families displaced by armed gangs seeking refuge in tents. (Photo by Guerinault Louis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
By Keith Bernard
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Sept. 22, 2025: Caribbean solidarity cannot remain a slogan. Haiti is in crisis. Millions are hungry. At the same time, Guyana’s farmers face plunging rice prices and overflowing silos. Two problems. One obvious solution.
Guyana should act now. A government-led program to supply rice to Haiti – whether through concessional sales, grants, or a humanitarian-trade mechanism – would feed Haitian families and give our farmers a stable outlet. This isn’t charity. It’s smart policy rooted in shared values.
A view from Haiti, one of the most vulnerable countries in the region to climate change alongside Venezuela, both with limited resources to respond effectively, in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on July 12, 2025. In Haiti, this vulnerability goes beyond hurricanes, floods, or earthquakes, and is deeply rooted in extreme poverty, rising insecurity, state neglect, and rapid environmental degradation. In the streets of Port-au-Prince, daily survival is a constant challenge. Markets operate under dire conditions, with shopkeepers selling amid garbage, starving children wandering the area, and families displaced by armed gangs seeking refuge in tents. (Photo by Guerinault Louis/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Europe has shown how effective this approach can be. Through its Common Agricultural Policy, (CAP), the EU long maintained “intervention stocks” of cereals and dairy products. Surpluses from these stocks were often channelled into its Food Aid and Food Facility programmes, which sent staple foods to countries in crisis while stabilising European farmers’ incomes. By pairing humanitarian action with agricultural policy, Europe strengthened both its moral standing and its internal markets.
Guyana and CARICOM can do the same. Such a move would prove that our integration is more than communiqués. It would position Guyana as a regional leader willing to match words with deeds, showing that Caribbean nations can solve Caribbean problems.
In a world of rising food insecurity and volatile markets, we can no longer wait for outside rescue. By linking our surplus to Haiti’s need, Guyana can transform excess into empathy and policy into progress.
Beyond this immediate step, CARICOM should create a Regional Food Security Facility – modelled on Europe’s experience—to pool surplus production, respond quickly to crises, and protect farmers’ incomes while feeding the vulnerable. This would institutionalize solidarity and ensure that today’s ad-hoc assistance becomes tomorrow’s enduring policy.
The time for action is now.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Keith Bernard is a Guyanese-born, NYC-based analyst and a frequent contributor to News Americas.
