Honduras food issues on NPR

As a couple of people commented on the last blog entry, NPR is doing a series on food issues in Honduras. You can see and hear the most recent article here.

An interesting story behind this series: You may notice that the photos that appear on the site were taking by none other than MCC's very own Joshua Eley-McClain, who works on a tilapia farm owned by the MAMA project. Dan Charles, an NPR reporter and Mennonite from Washington, D.C., contacted MCC after his on-the-ground contact canceled on him at the last minute. Josh traveled around with him for a week Dan interviewed government officials, Monsanto big wigs and subsistence farmers.

One of the interesting things in this story for me is the bit about worms, and how they destroy crops that have not been genetically modified, but leave the corn with the worm-killing crops untouched. I have no doubt that yields have been substantially higher with genetically modified crops, but this is only a short-term solution. My understanding of basic evolutionary biology is that as the disease-resistant strains of corn get stronger, so do the worms. Like computer security, in which the good guys try to stay one step ahead of the hackers, modern-day farming is a continuous battle between nature and humans playing God. Eventually, the worms will win, and then there will be no harvest. Heirloom varieties of crops have been around forever, and developed naturally as the hardiest and most disease resistant. As genetically modified crop strains intermingle with heirloom varieties, or as industrial farming companies buy up heirloom strains (which they call "competitors"), crop biodiversity falls, leaving us with one strain to pin our hopes on.

When talking to a poor Honduran farmer, however, who is thinking of nothing but subsistence, these arguments are hard to make.

I want to make it clear that I'm neither a scientist, nor an agriculturalist, so I should probably tread lightly when writing about my take on these issues. I understand it is part of a larger, more complex conversation, and am just adding my two cents to the fray.