Slog
News & ArtsMonday, January 21, 2013
Chow Black Vegans Making Life Hard for Poor Peruvians
Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 2:25 PM
Adventurous eaters liked its slightly bitter taste and the little white curls that formed around the grains. Vegans embraced quinoa as a credibly nutritious substitute for meat. Unusual among grains, quinoa has a high protein content (between 14%-18%), and it contains all those pesky, yet essential, amino acids needed for good health that can prove so elusive to vegetarians who prefer not to pop food supplements.Sales took off. Quinoa was, in marketing speak, the "miracle grain of the Andes", a healthy, right-on, ethical addition to the meat avoider's larder (no dead animals, just a crop that doesn't feel pain). Consequently, the price shot up – it has tripled since 2006 – with more rarified black, red and "royal" types commanding particularly handsome premiums.
But there is an unpalatable truth to face for those of us with a bag of quinoa in the larder. The appetite of countries such as ours for this grain has pushed up prices to such an extent that poorer people in Peru and Bolivia, for whom it was once a nourishing staple food, can no longer afford to eat it. Imported junk food is cheaper. In Lima, quinoa now costs more than chicken. Outside the cities, and fuelled by overseas demand, the pressure is on to turn land that once produced a portfolio of diverse crops into quinoa monoculture.
This is why solutions to our current social and environmental problems cannot be solved by the market. Indeed, as the crisis of 2008 revealed, even capitalism doesn't solve its problems with capitalism—when in trouble, it turns to socialism. Capitalism is only there for the good times and is smart enough to make for the door when the shit hits the fan. Where as consumers (and consumers are not capitalists—this is something that needs to be said again and again) continually turn to the market for solutions to their or our deepest and most pressing problems:
...[It's a] ghastly irony when the Andean peasant's staple grain becomes too expensive at home because it has acquired hero product status among affluent foreigners preoccupied with personal health, animal welfare and reducing their carbon "foodprint".
2
"...they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
Think about it, Charles.
Think about it, Charles.
3
I see what you did there, Charles.
Don't you have anything better to do than get everyone riled up?
Don't you have anything better to do than get everyone riled up?
4
Grow more of the shit. I looked it up, it grows at a variety of altitudes, there's a pretty wide range of temperatures it's fine with and it prefers terrible, sandy soil. Should be incredibly easy to get more of it going. Crashing an export in one relatively poor country and one very poor country isn't going to fix things.
6
Nice headline, Charles.
WSU has a big grant to study quinoa in the US. They've got trial fields growing in WA, OR, ID and a fourth state, maybe MT?
WSU has a big grant to study quinoa in the US. They've got trial fields growing in WA, OR, ID and a fourth state, maybe MT?
7
I feel guilty about having frozen Quinoa Melange from Trader Joe's in my frigde now, but what do I do in the immidiate future to help? Continue to occasionally buy quinoa to reassure US farmers than it's a good cash crop? Stop buying quinoa so there's more for Andeans? Is there someone to send letters to?
It's all fine and well to comment on a Slog blurb that American farmers should look into growing the stuff, but what can *I* do?
It's all fine and well to comment on a Slog blurb that American farmers should look into growing the stuff, but what can *I* do?
9
1) Nice headline. Ass.
2) So what's the solution? Eat less quinoa, and this will somehow make life measurably better for people? While not an expert, I'd assume the answer has more to do with tariffs and price controls (by their government and ours) than with people needing to eat less quinoa.
Worst. Marxist. Ever.
2) So what's the solution? Eat less quinoa, and this will somehow make life measurably better for people? While not an expert, I'd assume the answer has more to do with tariffs and price controls (by their government and ours) than with people needing to eat less quinoa.
Worst. Marxist. Ever.
10
This is just vegan bating. Why would you do that? For the most part, vegans aren't bad people. Yes, some are pretentious, but others are just trying to find some way of reducing their footprint or making a stand against the treatment of animals in American agriculture. Just leave them alone. The only time you hear most vegans complain is when you attack them. They're not hurting you, or anyone for this matter (This article has been debunked, and beyond that, most vegans don't give a shit about quinoa). So what gives?
12
Oh right. He fixed the racist headline to another racist headline. What a dope. But a dope who writes dainty twaddle. Yes.
13
Next thing we'll start growing it in the US more efficiently, prices will plummet and Charles can have another commie fit.
That's the beauty of being an American communist - you never have to bury your own family members when it fails.
That's the beauty of being an American communist - you never have to bury your own family members when it fails.
14
It's grass. There is nothing special about Peru. It'll grow it lots of places.
Not only that this price theory story was already debunked in the NYT.
Not only that this price theory story was already debunked in the NYT.
15
Hey, Charles, "White" "Hippy" "Vegan" Farmers in the Washington Okanogan have been growing quinoa since the 1990s.
(No, I don't know if they are white, hippy, or vegan, just as you don't know who buys quinoa in this country. Dope.)
(No, I don't know if they are white, hippy, or vegan, just as you don't know who buys quinoa in this country. Dope.)
16
When the NYT reported on this story 2 years ago they attributed quinoa's rising popularity to NASA, who discovered it when searching for foods ideal for long-term space travel.
It's interesting how the Guardian was able to pique peoples' interest in an old story by re-framing it ever so slightly, because now it's all over the internet ("Smug" is the 3rd word in MSN's blog post referencing the Guardian article). People really love to hate vegans.
It's interesting how the Guardian was able to pique peoples' interest in an old story by re-framing it ever so slightly, because now it's all over the internet ("Smug" is the 3rd word in MSN's blog post referencing the Guardian article). People really love to hate vegans.
17
14@, please read the link: http://m.guardiannews.com/world/2013/jan…
"Averaging $3,115 (£1,930) per tonne in 2011, quinoa has tripled in price since 2006. Coloured varieties fetch even more. Red royal quinoa sells at about $4,500 a tonne and the black variety can reach $8,000 per tonne. The crop has become a lifeline for the people of Bolivia's Oruro and Potosi regions, among the poorest in what is one of South America's poorest nations."
this is the guardian. i think the debunking of this story is a myth...
"Averaging $3,115 (£1,930) per tonne in 2011, quinoa has tripled in price since 2006. Coloured varieties fetch even more. Red royal quinoa sells at about $4,500 a tonne and the black variety can reach $8,000 per tonne. The crop has become a lifeline for the people of Bolivia's Oruro and Potosi regions, among the poorest in what is one of South America's poorest nations."
this is the guardian. i think the debunking of this story is a myth...
19
Haha, look at the huffy vegan #8. Who you gonna preach to now, overprivileged hippie? Haha...
@12 - You are SO Seattle. And that's *not* a compliment.
@12 - You are SO Seattle. And that's *not* a compliment.
20
Charles, the word vegan (or even vegetarian) is nowhere to be found in the Guardian article you linked in comments. Yet it covers the issue well, as journalism should.
The article you link in your original post, however... that's an opinion piece ("Comment is free") by a grandstanding food writer, and her vegan-baiting is based on misinformation—like, that certain "pesky" amino acids are so hard to come by that vegans have to either eat quinoa or take supplements—and a comical inflation of vegan numbers and influence. (She also pointed out that vegans are destroying the world by eating soy, though Guardian editors added a note clarifying that 97% of soy is used for livestock feed.)
That's not journalism, that's trolling.
.
The article you link in your original post, however... that's an opinion piece ("Comment is free") by a grandstanding food writer, and her vegan-baiting is based on misinformation—like, that certain "pesky" amino acids are so hard to come by that vegans have to either eat quinoa or take supplements—and a comical inflation of vegan numbers and influence. (She also pointed out that vegans are destroying the world by eating soy, though Guardian editors added a note clarifying that 97% of soy is used for livestock feed.)
That's not journalism, that's trolling.
.
21
I think the upshot is that our food web is all interconnected, and there are no methods of eating that do not put someone else out in some way. You have to kill something to eat it (plant or animal), and if you eat it someone else doesn't get to, and if a grower/harvester can get lots of $ for it, then it'll be less available for people who have less resources.
22
NPR reported on this, too. Here's a response from someone making a movie about quinoa farmers who's actually *in* Bolivia. It's total bs, according to him. http://bearwitnesspictures.blogspot.com/
23
Charles, you give into to your inner troll so easily. You are an intelligent man but you waste your energy on cheap tricks that keep you from the top flight of thought. Sad really.What a waste.
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