USAID Rice—Haiti

Abstract

This chapter examines an image of USAID rice being distributed in the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. The chapter begins by examining what the image invites us to see and not see, framing the event of disaster as natural and (naturally) anarchic in its consequences for social, legal, and political order. It then threads a way back through this spectacle by telling a story of USAID rice which allows attention to be drawn to this object’s redistributive effects on power and authority and the intertwined politics of humanitarianism, aid, trade, and development expertise.