Aug 18, 2026 · 39 min · 11 segments
Máximo Torero Cullen is one of the world's leading voices on global hunger and food security. Currently serving as Chief Economist at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), he uses his…
Máximo Torero CullenGuest
Melissa FlemingHost
Um, Peru is a beautiful country, amazing food, um, but also it's a country that has a lot of diversity and heterogeneity among the country.
You have a, a capital which where most of the population is concentrated, uh, which is even in the capital you see the huge inequalities, even deeper than what you see in, in the Andes or in the jungle, uh, because people migrate, and they don't have nothing, basically.
But when you go to the mountains, you also see that there are households which are living in the top of a hill at four thousand meters or higher.
I think something that I have learned with rural people is that they value a lot their time, and they value a lot their peace.
The kids, of course, face bigger challenges because they want to grow, uh, and they are normally restricted by their own norms of these indigenous people and by the isolation, no? Isolation where they live.
Uh, but again, it opens the window to, to bring opportunities, no? And how we can give those kids, those younger generation people, uh, in those households, very isolated households, opportunity to migrate or to do other things outside, no? And that starts with education.
Uh, uh, and that's what my country lacked a lot, no? You have kids that had to walk three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon to go to school.
So imagine, no? You wake up at five AM or four AM, you walk, you arrive at seven, and then you walk back after classes at three PM, you arrive to your house at six PM, so you only have one meal a day if you are lucky.
Like for example, I, I worked in Cajamarca, uh, in a place called Pomacanchis.
Uh, uh, and, um, what I saw there was these kids that basically walk all the time, but, but when we give them something that was atypical to them, uh, we connect them to internet suddenly.
Um, Peru is a beautiful country, amazing food, um, but also it's a country that has a lot of diversity and heterogeneity among the country.
You have a, a capital which where most of the population is concentrated, uh, which is even in the capital you see the huge inequalities, even deeper than what you see in, in the Andes or in the jungle, uh, because people migrate, and they don't have nothing, basically.
But when you go to the mountains, you also see that there are households which are living in the top of a hill at four thousand meters or higher.
I think something that I have learned with rural people is that they value a lot their time, and they value a lot their peace.
The kids, of course, face bigger challenges because they want to grow, uh, and they are normally restricted by their own norms of these indigenous people and by the isolation, no? Isolation where they live.
Uh, but again, it opens the window to, to bring opportunities, no? And how we can give those kids, those younger generation people, uh, in those households, very isolated households, opportunity to migrate or to do other things outside, no? And that starts with education.
Uh, uh, and that's what my country lacked a lot, no? You have kids that had to walk three hours in the morning and three hours in the afternoon to go to school.
So imagine, no? You wake up at five AM or four AM, you walk, you arrive at seven, and then you walk back after classes at three PM, you arrive to your house at six PM, so you only have one meal a day if you are lucky.
Like for example, I, I worked in Cajamarca, uh, in a place called Pomacanchis.
Uh, uh, and, um, what I saw there was these kids that basically walk all the time, but, but when we give them something that was atypical to them, uh, we connect them to internet suddenly.
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