Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa?

A comment by Joanne Blythman in the Guardian (UK): Not long ago, quinoa was just an obscure Peruvian grain you could only buy in wholefood shops. We struggled to pronounce it (it's keen-wa, not qui-no-a), yet it was feted by food lovers as a novel addition to the familiar ranks of couscous and rice. Dieticians clucked over quinoa approvingly because it ticked the low-fat box and fitted in with government healthy eating advice to "base your meals on starchy foods".

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.

In fact, the quinoa trade is yet another troubling example of a damaging north-south exchange, with well-intentioned health and ethics-led consumers here unwittingly driving poverty there. It's beginning to look like a cautionary tale of how a focus on exporting premium foods can damage the producer country's food security....

Photo of quinoa by Vi..Cult..., Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license

Successful completion of climate change adaptation project in the Peruvian Andes

UNESCO: Negotiated with the support of the World Heritage Centre, this 3 year Swiss government financed project entitled "Local Capacities for climate change adaptation and risk management: Manu National Park in Peru - World Heritage Site" was brought to a successful close earlier this month.   Fully implemented by the UNESCO Lima office, the project was founded on a strategic alliance with Peru’s National Protected Areas Service. 

The project recognized the close link between the conservation of this vast natural World Heritage site, and the well-being of neighbouring communities.  It worked on two distinct fronts – the first on the development of a climate change adaptation plan for the Manu National Park (also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve), and the second on helping neighbouring communities improve their understanding of climate change, its implications on their livelihoods, and on the possible measures they could take to be prepared for it.    Over 4,400 students received information on this issue, and 60 teachers were trained.   Municipalities considered vulnerable to climate change benefitted from the development of manuals on climate change risk management.

As climate change and its effects on World Heritage sites are increasingly understood, projects such as these help stakeholders from community to intergovernmental levels come to terms with the real implications in terms of livelihoods and biodiversity conservation.   The World Heritage Centre is currently developing a “Climate Change Adaptation Field Guide for Natural World Heritage Site Managers” in an effort to help prepare the world’s most outstanding natural areas deal with the effects of climate change....

A river bank in Manu National Park, shot by As578, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license