In 2000, farmers sold a pound of quinoa for less than $0.25 USD. These highland crops have historically fetched incredibly low prices, yet remain important parts of the production and consumption rituals integral to daily life for Andean people. The harsh highland climate of the region had long prevented farmers from cultivating lucrative crops, leaving them to grow a handful of mostly native crops adapted to the environment, such as quinoa, kañiwa, oca, potatoes, and ulloco. This was an exciting time for small farmers in the Andean highlands, many of who had previously farmed primarily to feed their families and to gather occasional supplementary cash earnings, while other family members worked away from the farm to provide a stable monetary income. While quinoa’s export demand had begun increasing a few years prior, this bonanza period saw the windfall profits and new fortunes that characterize commodity booms. The “quinoa boom” lasted about three years, starting around 2011 and peaking in late 2014. Though the complex dynamics the boom set in motion have received ample and deserved media attention, the inevitable bust that followed has gone unnoticed in international media, and brings up important questions about the wisdom of commercializing indigenous foods as a development strategy. NACLA’s Nancy Romer offered a piece in early 2015 outlining the sustainability challenge the boom provoked. The Guardian ran a similar story in 2013 that highlighted problems that quinoa’s sudden demand had created for consumers in Andean countries.
Major international news outlets ran stories about the complex nutritional politics that it set in motion with titles like “ Can Vegans Stomach the Unpalatable Truth About Quinoa?” and “ Quinoa’s Global Success Creates Local Quandary.” The New York Times’ 2011 article lamented that, due to the price spike, quinoa farmers were selling their quinoa rather than eating it-buying substitutes like cheap noodles and rice with the money they had earned. Long denigrated in South America as an “indian food” that marked its consumers as poor, quinoa was virtually unknown beyond the Andean highlands before it transformed into a coveted fashion food and dietary staple found on the dinner tables of health-conscious eaters across the United States, Europe, and Asia.Īs quinoa gained international attention, so too did the phenomena of the quinoa boom. Quinoa, the Andean “super grain,” took consumer markets by storm. During this same period, quinoa’s price surged by 600%. Between 20, quinoa exports from the world’s leading quinoa-producing countries, Peru and Bolivia, increased seven-fold.
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