||

Jul 21, 2008

Food rise has Bolivia's coca farmers planting rice (AP)

In this Dec. 16, 2005 file photo, a Bolivian saleswomen shows coca leafs in the Coca Market in downtown in  La Paz, Bolivia. Soaring food prices may achieve what the United States has spent millions of dollars trying to do: persuade Bolivian farmers to sow their fields with less potent crops than cocaine's raw ingredient. Bolivian President Evo Morales, once the leader of a powerful coca growers' union, is now asking coca farmers to supplement their crops with rice and corn as a way of holding down coca production while helping to feed South America's poorest country.  (AP Photo/Marcelo Hernandez, File)AP - Soaring food prices may achieve what the United States has spent millions of dollars trying to do: persuade Bolivian farmers to sow their fields with less potent crops than cocaine's raw ingredient.