Agriculture in Mesoamerica

The harvest season winds down and pantries fill up with the last tomatoes, squash, carrots and corn. Food writer Kathy Gunst shares some some tips on making the produce last the winter months.

Milford Beeghly built an empire and a science out of corn when, in the 1930s, he started working on hybrid seed corn. His grandson, Montieth McCollum, has pieced together a documentary of Beeghly’s successful, yet closeted, life. Bruce Barcott reviews “Hybrid: One Man’s Passion for Corn.”

Development agencies have long promoted corn as a crop that can modernize African agriculture. Yet some food experts say Africa has now become over-reliant on corn, and the result has been increased malnutrition and vulnerability to famine.

Will Bradshaw of Green Coast Enterprises tells Living on Earth about Project Sprout, a test plot of sunflowers in New Orleans. The sunflowers will remove heavy metals from contaminated soils and the sunflower seeds will be pressed to make biofuels.