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hour outside of Mexico City, the taxi turns off the main road,
and the noise and bustle of the highway fade away. Past a steel
gate and a white guardhouse, we enter the well-tended grounds of
the International Center for the Improvement of Maize and Wheat,
known by its Spanish acronym, CIMMYT (pronounced SIM-it). It’s a
farm masquerading as a small United Nations. An array of flags
pays tribute to the countries that fund the organization’s work:
creating better crops for the developing world’s poor farmers.
Further ahead is a line of white signs, each standing in front
of a small square plot where hairy heads of wheat sway in the
breeze. This is agriculture’s Walk of Fame; on those signs are
the names of wheat varieties that emerged from CIMMYT’s breeding
grounds f