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When Marjorie Leventry, a nutritionist, went to Ecuador with her husband, Bob, as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1993, she thought she was going to tell the Ecuadorians how to eat. "Instead, I found out they are eating better than we do," Marjorie said. "They have a grain-based diet with very little meat."

Specifically, she discovered that the indigenous people of the Andes were eating quinoa (pronounced keenwah), a grain that has been grown there for a thousand years. It is a pearl-colored seed, which is cooked like rice, but is extremely high in protein and vitamins and has a more distinctive taste. It is also gluten free, which makes it valuable for people on special diets.

"Quinoa is also grown in Peru and Bolivia but it is hybridized and bland," said Bob. "The quinoa we found in Ecuador is an heirloom grain, the same grain that was grown by the Incas."

Coming to live in Chicago in 1996 at the end of their volunteer service, the Leventrys established Inca Organics through which they provide a market for Ecuadorian farmers and enable Americans to have access to this nutritious grain. "When we came back, we didn't want to lose our ties to the Ecuadorians, who are a wonderful, tranquil people," Marjorie said. "And as a nutritionist I wanted to be able to sell this grain that I think is so special."

Consequently, the Leventrys joined with Escuelas Radiofonicas Populares Del Ecuador (ERPE) to organize the production of quinoa. ERPE an independent, non-profit radio station with a social agenda, had been promoting literacy and organic farming for decades, but until the Leventrys appeared on the scene, the farmers had no market for their grain. In 1998, the first year of the venture, 298 farmers participated, producing 27 metric tons (2240 pounds per ton). The 2002 crop of 400 metric tons was produced by over 4,000 families.

Inca Organics encourages farm families to export two-thirds of their crop and keep one-third for their own use. They pay 32 cents a pound, which is considered fair-trade price, and has increased the average farmer's income by 50 percent. "Before, if they managed to sell any, they were only getting 18 cents a pound," Bob said. Since Inca Organics was organized, many farmers have graduated from living in mud huts to concrete-block houses and have been able to buy cows, he added.

"There's an old saying about teaching a man to fish," Bob said. "In the real world they know how to fish. Just like our (Ecuadorian) farmers. They have been growing this grain for 1,000 years but what they needed was a market."

Robert Murphy, bulk buyer for the Whole Foods Market in Chicago's Lincoln Park, said buying Inca Organics' is a "win, win, win" situation for him. "Its prewashed, it has a better taste (than other quinoas) and it's helping indigenous farmers." A customer who has been eating quinoa for years, told Murphy this was the best he ever tasted. Whole Foods sells the quinoa in the bulk for $1.89 a pound.

Corby Kummer, a senior editor, wrote in The Atlantic Monthly, ". . .Inca Organics quinoa is cleaner, fresher, sweeter and livelier tasting than the kind most health-food markets sell."

As soon as the grain is harvested ERPE personnel pick it up, weighing it and paying each farmer immediately. It is then trucked to a central location where it is washed, dried, and packaged in 25- or 50-pound bags. It is then shipped to warehouses in San Francisco, Newark, N.J., and Des Plaines. The washing and packaging operation provides seasonal jobs for more than 15 people; ERPE benefits financially; and the Leventrys employ Guadalupe and Marcos Tapia as their in-country representatives.

The Leventrys financed Inca Organics out of their own personal funds and say that since its inception the company has progressed from a break-even status to modest profit. While their motivation was partly altruistic, Bob says, they are not a charity and hope that in five years they will have recouped their original investment and can turn a profitable enterprise over to ERPE to run without them.

Bob and Marjorie Leventry with Lorenzo Cepeda, President Of Farmers Coop., and five village leaders in February, 2003.

Bob Leventry, 64, who grew up in Pennsylvania, met his wife, an Ohioan, when both were students at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. They have lived in Gary and Peoria where Bob worked is executive positions with U.S. Steel Corp. and RLI Insurance Co. He used his business expertise as a Peace Corps volunteer to help small businesses get started. "Joining the Peace Corps was a chance to learn a foreign language and do something different as we approached retirement," he said. "It jars the brain cells." He said the Peace Corps is getting old in the sense that volunteers are older these days. "The average age in our business class was 47."

Marjorie, 63, worked as a nutritionist in hospitals and in private practice during her career and put those skills to work in Ecuador. Now, with their two children grown, they are living in Chicago where they are members of St. James Episcopal Cathedral.

Inca Organics is based in Chicago, but the Leventrys make several trips to Ecuador every year where they have a hands-on relationship with the farmers. They are also hoping to expand their business to European markets and plan to add the Andean Lupin bean, which is very high in protein, and black amaranth, a high-fiber grain, to their product line in the near future.

In addition to seeing the improved standard of living of the Ecuadorian farmers, Bob Leventry said, there is great satisfaction in seeing how Inca Organics has increased their sense of pride. "In the past, they were often told by people (in a different strata of society) that the quinoa they grew was food for animals. One farmer told me, 'I though I was raising pig food and now I am an exporter.'"

For information on where to purchase Inca Organics quinoa call 866-328-4622 toll free; or log on to their website: www.incaorganics.com.

Virginia Mullery is a free-lance writer living in North Chicago, IL