COUNTRY NOTES: Machu Picchu, Maize and the Advantage of Backwardness

By Nicholas Asheshov – Special for the Machu Picchu Centennial – Machu Picchu and the Inca Empire were the creation of an import from Central America, maize, and a dramatic climate shift that turned the Andean highlands from inhospitable wet-and-cold to pleasant, as it is today, dry-and-warm. For more than half a millenium before this [...]

Andean folk singer becomes UNICEF goodwill ambassador

Celebrated Peruvian folk singer Dina Páucar, also known as the “Beautiful Goddess of Love,” is receiving the distinguished roster of UNICEF goodwill ambassador today during a ceremony hosted by the United Nations. Páucar, an iconic example of social change for Andean Indians and mixed-race mestizos and known for her philanthropy, is one of Peru’s biggest [...]

Climate Change: hail and freezing temperatures forecast for Puno and southern highlands

Climate change continues to wreck havoc in Peru’s southern altiplano, where the arrival of freezing temperatures since March — almost three months earlier than usual — have killed more than a dozen people.

Potato Science for the Poor: UN conference held in Cusco

More than 90 of the world’s leading authorities on the potato met in Cusco this week to discuss sustainable potato-based systems, in a four-day conference sponsored by the International Potato Center, CIP, and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO. One of the expected outputs of the conference has been dubbed the “Cusco Challenge,” a [...]