Quinoa and Food Justice

You've probably heard of Quinoa. Maybe one of your earthy-crunchy friends told you about it. Or maybe you're the earthy-crunchy friend who buys it at Whole Foods. Even if you don't know Spanish, you probably know that it's pronounced “keen-wa” and not “kwin-oh-ah.” It's a big hit with lots of people for all sorts of reasons. It's gluten free, which is a big plus if you have Celiac's disease. It's a complete protein, which is good news for vegetarians, and fantastic news for vegans.* And it's from South America, which automatically makes you more cultured if you eat it.

There's so many plusses about quinoa, it's almost too good to be true. And in the last two years, a number of media sources have pushed the idea that eating quinoa may actually be evil.

The anti-quinoa argument

The most entertaining argument against quinoa consumption comes from a piece in the Guardian titled “Can vegans stomach the unpalatabletruth about quinoa?” The Guardian laments that “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'.” It goes on to state that Peruvian and Bolivian peasants can no longer afford to buy quinoa. Concerning information indeed! Fortunately the Guardian has a simple solution for all those hippy-dippy quinoa eaters: stop being vegan and eat cheeseburgers like the rest of us.

The problem with the Guardian's article is that tt's not so much a well-constructed argument against importing quinoa to Great Britain, as it is a chance to express the nuanced view that vegans are dumb. Well I personally have not been convinced by arguments to go vegan, I read enough news to be suspicious of the Guardian's article. It seems unlikely that they got to the bottom of the quinoa story in only 700 words.

The pro-quinoa argument

Two weeks after the Guardian published its anti-vegan propaganda, Slate made its case for why it's ok for residents of the Global North to eat quinoa in an article titled "It's OK to eat quinoa".

“Most of the world's quinoa is grown on the altiplano, a vast, cold, windswept, and barren 14,000-foot Andean plateau spanning parts of Peru and Bolivia. Quinoa is one of the few things that grow there, and its high price means more economic opportunities for the farmers in one of the poorest parts of South America.”

This article focuses on quinoa producers. Higher prices means higher profits. And higher profits means more power. As farmers have formed co-operatives and producers' associations, they have been able to make themselves heard in the chambers of government regarding issues such as environmental and economic rights. The alti-plano isn't a comfortable place to live, and its residents do not have a history of having much power or consideration by far away national governments.

The “it's complicated” argument

Mother Jones hit the intelligent middle ground between the two sides. In their piece “Quinoa: Good, Evil, or Just Really Complicated?” they choose the third option. They point out the health benefits to consumers, and the benefits to producers who are seeing a rise in profits and therefore a rise in options about what then can buy. But they also point out if demand for quinoa continues to rise and is only met by Andean produced quinoa, it will be an environmental disaster for the region. As quinoa prices go up, more and more land is devoted to growing the crop. But the soil needs time to recover, which it won't get if farmers aren't intentional about it.

The solution that Mother Jones proposes is to produce quinoa in other parts of the world.

“In other words, Andean farmers could focus on growing it for themselves and for the region's teeming cities, and farmers in other regions could begin growing it for their surrounding markets. Already, quinoa is being grown successfully in the Colorado Rockies, and farmers in the Pacific Northwest are testing it out, too, NPRreports. According to the FAO, it's also "currently being cultivated in several countries in Europe and Asia with good yields." By adding supply, these initiatives could push the price of quinoa down to a level that's still profitable to Andean farmers but affordable to regional consumers.”

So what should you do?

Research. You should research where your quinoa is coming from. For example, you can get US-grown quinoa from Idaho. If you are buying quinoa grown in the Andes, make sure it's fair-trade quinoa.

Ideally this is what we should be doing with all food. But that's hard. So here's my suggestion, pick any 3 random food items that you consume on a weekly basis. Do some research about ethical sourcing of said items. And if you realize that the brand you usually buy doesn't match your ethical standards, then find a brand that does and switch to them. It'll probably cost more, but that's the price of your moral decision. It's only 3 items so it shouldn't be too much of a strain on your pocket. Keep that going for the next two and a half months, and if you're looking for a goal for 2016 when January 1 rolls by, pick 3 more items and repeat the process.

*I don't understand the whole story with proteins and human nutrition, but I do know that most plant sources of protein don't provide a 'complete protein,' that is they are lacking in certain amino acids that we need. Beans, though high in protein, need grains (like rice) in order to provide the whole protein punch. Animal sources of proteins, like meat and eggs, provide complete proteins.