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- Andean Harvest
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Peasant farmers in Peru's central highlands grow hundreds of varieties of potatoes, almost all for their own consumption. Now they're being encouraged to sell them to high-end consumers. But potatoes are more than just food in the Andes, they're part of a complex spiritual, biological and cultural universe. Will the market change that? Jon Miller visits during the harvest.
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Related Pieces
Piece Description
Peasant farmers in Peru's central highlands grow hundreds of varieties of potatoes, almost all for their own consumption. Now they're being encouraged to sell them to high-end consumers. But potatoes are more than just food in the Andes, they're part of a complex spiritual, biological and cultural universe. Will the market change that? Jon Miller visits during the harvest.
Broadcast History
Aired 01/11/04 on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday
Transcript
HOST INTRO:
In the Andes mountains of Peru, farmers have traditionally used barter for most of what they can't produce themselves. But to get along in TODAY'S world they need money. That simple fact can have enormous cultural implications. Travel to any village in the Andes -- or any village almost anywhere in the world -- and you can see people struggling to figure out how to earn the money they need without destroying the elaborate safety nets they've woven from family and community, from history and local knowledge.
Jon Miller spent five years in Peru. Recently he went back to the central highlands, where farmers in one community are facing what may seem from the outside like a straightforward business decision. For them it's a momentous choice.
0:00 AMBI 1:
MILLER: IT'S THE DAY OF THE PEASANT -- PART NAT...
Read the full transcript
Timing and Cues
INTRO: In the Andes mountains of Peru, farmers have traditionally used barter for most of what they can't produce themselves. But to get along in TODAY'S world they need money. That simple fact can have enormous cultural implications. Travel to any village in the Andes -- or any village almost anywhere in the world -- and you can see people struggling to figure out how to earn the money they need without destroying the elaborate safety nets they've woven from family and community, from history and local knowledge.
Jon Miller spent five years in Peru. Recently he went back to the central highlands, where farmers in one community are facing what may seem from the outside like a straightforward business decision. For them it's a momentous choice.
OUTRO: That piece was produced by Jon Miller for Homelands Productions. It's part of the Worlds of Difference series on global cultural change.
Additional Files
- Host Intro/Outro (andeanintro.doc)
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Bill Anderson
Posted on May 16, 2006 at 08:37 AM | Permalink
Review of Andean Harvest
I enjoyed listening to this piece because I was able to see a physical space and a culture that I was not aware of previously.
I thought the reporter was effective in using simple, active and powerful words to describe that space and culture.
The sound helped advanced the story and was never gratuitous. The report was thorough. It was well edited.
He respected his subject and his subjects without passing judgement, something that is so easy for us to do as outsiders from more affluent and developed locales.