- Playing
- Corn in Oaxaca
- From
- Round Earth Media
National debut
Buy a dozen ears of corn at the grocery store or the farmer's market, peel back the husk, and you’re looking at seeds that trace their genetic roots to Mexico. Mexican indigenous farmers first developed corn thousands of years ago, and they’ve been growing it ever since. Now those farmers are struggling for survival. What’s at stake is not just their livelihoods, but the genetic source material for one of the world’s major food crops. Independent producers Mary Losure and Mary Stucky traveled to the birthplace of corn for this report, one in a series of stories looking at the impact of free trade on the land and people of Mexico.
More from Round Earth Media
Mangroves on the Yucatan
(07:24)
From: Round Earth Media
Mexico is trying to balance its lucrative tourism industry with the need to protect fragile coastal ecosystems.
Timber in Durango
(07:03)
From: Round Earth Media
Community-owned forests in Mexico are tapping into the demand for eco-friendly wood -- at least for now.
Roads on the Isthmus
(07:39)
From: Round Earth Media
Improved roads were supposed to be a side-benefit of NAFTA, but some poor Mexicans are convinced that highways won't improve their lives.
Bioprospecting in Chiapas
(07:56)
From: Round Earth Media
Traditional Mexican healers have stopped "bioprospecting projects of foreign pharmaceutical companies.
Roger and Jacqui
(04:44)
From: Round Earth Media
Per capita, Laos is the most bombed country on earth. For nine years, every day, around the clock, the US rained bombs down on much of the country. The bombing was intended ...
What's cooking? Dosas.
(04:45)
From: Round Earth Media
Dosas are a a sort of thin crepe wrapped around a filling -- often potatoes -- as popular in India as pancakes here. Savory. Crispy. Eaten all day long. Making the perfect ...
The profile of a ragpicker in India
(04:30)
From: Round Earth Media
Throughout the world it’s sometimes surprising to find people still doing jobs that disappeared in wealthy countries centuries ago. One example: rag pickers. Men, women and ...
Jhai computers
(06:13)
From: Round Earth Media
Back in 1966 Lee Thorn was a young American serviceman in the Vietnam War. His assignment: loading bombs onto planes bound for Laos, a small country west of Vietnam. The ...
Hope for Panama hat weavers in Ecuador
(05:51)
From: Round Earth Media
Some of the finest straw hats in the world come from Ecuador. The best sell for hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Most of that money goes to hat dealers and retail stores ...
Chocolate, gift of the gods
(04:39)
From: Round Earth Media
Mexico is the birthplace of chocolate. The story goes that the Mayan god Quetzalcoatl presented his people with a gift from the garden of paradise: the cacao tree from which ...
Related Pieces
Piece Description
National debut Buy a dozen ears of corn at the grocery store or the farmer's market, peel back the husk, and you’re looking at seeds that trace their genetic roots to Mexico. Mexican indigenous farmers first developed corn thousands of years ago, and they’ve been growing it ever since. Now those farmers are struggling for survival. What’s at stake is not just their livelihoods, but the genetic source material for one of the world’s major food crops. Independent producers Mary Losure and Mary Stucky traveled to the birthplace of corn for this report, one in a series of stories looking at the impact of free trade on the land and people of Mexico.
Additional Files
- (description) (HEREWHEREWELIVEIntrosandDescriptions.doc)
Of 4 purchasers of this piece...
- 4 also bought:Bioprospecting in Chiapas (07:56)
- 3 also bought:
Singing Sanitation Worker (04:51) - 3 also bought:Mangroves on the Yucatan (07:24)
- 2 also bought:
- 2 also bought:
Steve Yasko
Posted on May 07, 2005 at 05:03 AM | Permalink
Frankenfood Invades Mexico
That’s important, exciting and something our listeners must know about!
But it comes after too much picturesque location set up. Bang ‘em over the head from the start! Iowa Frankenstein Food Invades Mexico! This story is urgent, but I didn’t get a sense of urgency from the narrator. This is s a bit tough because urgency can often be seen as anger, and that is a subtle way of inferring bias in a story. Hmm, you think?
The piece does a great job of taking to Mexico and into the lives of the people who are directly affected by this circumstance. I like the piece, don’t get me wrong, but given the paranoia storm clouds gathering around public radio, I wonder if I am over analyzing my feelings about pieces like this. Thank goodness I don’t run a news station and have to question myself everyday like that!
Again, this makes a great collaboration piece when mixed into over all coverage.