Interview: A gift from the Mayans

Two thousand years ago, the Mayans planted millions of nut trees in the central American rainforests. The nuts were their staple food. The trees remain, but the modern descendants of the Maya have forgotten about this forest food so completely that they trample the fallen nuts under foot and chop down the trees to make room for fields of corn that produce far less food. Or they did, until the American daughter of an Iranian-born doctor discovered the true worth of the Maya nut while working as a biologist in Guatemala. Now, thanks to her efforts, thousands of village women…