Aid

Ask a typical American what corn means to him or her, and you're likely to get a blank stare, unless they've read The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan's best seller, or watched a movie like Food Inc. That person may say corn has taken over the American diet, caused the U.S. obesity crisis and contributed to environmental degradation. Corn, after all, is used in some way to produce everything from meat to snack chips and soft drinks.

But ask poor east Africans what corn, or maize, means to them and they'll tell you it is what sustains life.

I know what a drought looks like, but I've never seen anything like the devastation to a portion of the Rift Valley near the Tanzania border.

When Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas docked in Haiti yesterday, history was made. First, it marked the inaugural passenger sailing of the vessel, the largest in the world with capacity for 6,300 cruisers. Second, it was the first visit hosted by the newly renovated port at Labadee, Haiti's greatest hope for jumpstarting its fledgling tourist industry, representing an investment of 55 million dollars. Labadee has welcomed many Royal Caribbean ships over the years but until yesterday they did not dock and passengers were instead ferried in on launches.

I grew up in western Texas and covered the Midwest's devastating drought of 1988. I know what a drought looks like, but I've never seen anything like the devastation to a portion of the Rift Valley near the Tanzania border that I visited today in pursuit of corn farmers.

Fog shrouded the surrounding hills as a steady rain fell in the town of Machakos today, driving customers from the shops and market stalls in the middle of town. Tarps were draped over bins of grain and beans to keep them dry. But just try to find a merchant unhappy with the rain. "No problem. It's only for a while," said one vegetable vendor in the market. "Then we'll have enough food for Kenya."

An issue earlier this year of New African, a widely distributed monthly news magazine, carried the cover story: "GM Food: Is it good for Africa?" The headline on the story inside gave the answer: "Seeds of destruction." That's a message that Africans have been getting for a decade at least about genetically engineered crops. And governments, with a handful of exceptions, most notably South Africa's, have kept biotech seeds out of their country, much to the frustration of the U.S. government and American agribusiness.

It remains to be seen whether genetically modified crops will ever be grown in east Africa, but in the meantime scientists already are reporting some success with improving the drought tolerance of corn, known here as maize, the old-fashion way, crossing existing lines from as far away as Mexico with lines common to Africa. Agronomist Dan Makumbi says yield improvements though this traditional breeding can mean the difference between whether small-scale farmers can feed their families or not.

In some parts of the world, biotech companies have had to worry about keeping environmental activists out of their research plots. Companies can ill afford to have these big-money experiments ruined. Here in Kenya, scientists have a different worry - elephants.

What happens here in Kenya could change the way the world views genetically modified food. Whether it really makes a positive difference in the lives of Africans remains to be seen. Why is Kenya key? The first reason is obvious enough. The first transgenic, drought-tolerant maize crop intended for east Africa will be grown in field trials next year. (The photo above, provided by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, is of a conventionally bred version of drought-tolerant corn.)

Special correspondent Kira Kay examines East Timor's ongoing effort to rebuild itself, 10 years after winning independence from Indonesia. The report is part of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting's Fragile States project, a partnership with the Bureau for International Reporting.

Credits:
Reporter: Kira Kay
Producer / Camera / Editor: Jason Maloney
Production Associates: Gayathri Vaidyanathan, Elspeth Montgomery

A production of the Bureau for International Reporting
In partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

A woman was being carried down the road in a bed.

I have encountered some strange things in South Sudan—seen malnourished children; nearly stepped on a large opalescent snake—but nothing more compelling than this.

What impressed me as I struggled to catch up was the speed at which the four men carrying the women were moving, each supporting a leg of a bed constructed of rough-cut wood and a lattice of rope.

Last November Foreign Exchange aired a special edition, focusing on the nearly 1 billion people around the world who lack access to clean water and sanitation. The host, Daljit Dhaliwal, highlighted Pulitzer Center's work on water issues in east Africa and how those reports were then used to frame an interactive web portal to engage the public, and in particular students and educators, throughout the world.