A quinoa dilemma

Quinoa is not a staple at our house. I like it a lot, but I don’t make it that often. If I did, I would probably already have negotiated a way through the ethical maze that confronts me. Should I buy quinoa from its homeland in South America, and if so should it be the morally superior stuff grown by small farmers on the altiplano of Peru and Bolivia, or the industrial stuff grown on the coast by greedy land barons cashing in on the mystique cultivated by the local people they despise?

Of course that’s an oversimplification, but it captures the spirit of the problem. The small farmers deserve some recompense for the work their communities carried out over the centuries, first to domesticate and then to cultivate quinoa, and along the way creating scores of distinct varieties that offer resilience and food security. I want to support them, if I can.

There are, however, other dimensions. It may be that on the altiplano, farmers trying at last to make a bit of money for themselves out of their newly discovered gluten-free supercrop are cutting corners on environmental protection and biodiversity conservation. A bit of money can buy access to a tractor and some fertiliser, a temptation hard to resist. Meanwhile the coast, lush and fertile, is a paradise for pests and diseases too. The kind of people who like quinoa probably like organic quinoa even more, so it must be tempting for them to use pesticides even though they shouldn’t.

If those were the only choices it would be relatively easy. Favour the small farmers and hope that they don’t grasp the opportunity to slay their golden goose for short-term gain. Alas, the dilemma is further complicated by lots of quinoa now growing far from its ancestral home, even, as I discovered a couple of weeks ago, here in Italy, which ranks 10^th in global production.¹

The transport costs of a dry grain don’t bother me. The environmental practices are more of a factor, but organic certification ought to take care of that. Maybe the simplest option is the best, and I should just seek out locally-grown quinoa and leave it at that. Or perhaps I should arrange a taste test of local versus “authentic”. If I don’t make it that often, surely I owe it to myself to make the best quality?

Syndicated to Eat This Podcast.