Quinoa Commodification in the Andean Highlands and the Pursuit of Alternative Grains

• In Event: High-Altitude Commodities in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries

Abstract

Alongside the international boom in quinoa consumption in the past decade, a slew of scientific and popular articles speculated that quinoa could help humanity stave off the effects of climate change on global food supply. Quinoa was rich in proteins and vitamins, it had an ancient history rooted in the Andes, and it grew in extreme climates close to 4,000 meters above sea level, where it withstood drought, frost, and poor soil conditions. Quinoa, it seemed, suddenly became an international superstar commodity. This paper, however, shows a longer history of state-led quinoa initiatives in the Peruvian Andes in the first half of the twentieth century and demonstrates how altitude shaped the visions and outcomes of economic and nutritional development.

Unlike the twenty-first century globalization efforts, twentieth century Peruvian quinoa programs promoted commodification in domestic markets. Long consumed by Indigenous people living in the rural Andean highlands, developers sought to promote quinoa among coastal and urban consumers, living at lower altitudes and unaccustomed to eating quinoa. Quinoa’s unique ecological and nutritional properties sparked a romanticized nationalist fervor for the crop among Andean scientists and elites but inhibited success. This was due in part, I argue, because of a paradoxical understanding of quinoa’s agricultural and environmental properties. While agronomists criticized Indigenous farming methods for not using modern, industrial methods, developers also did not mobilize alternative production methods to transform Indigenous subsistence farming methods or avoid Indigenous producers altogether. In short, industrialization efforts focused on issues of consumption and nutrition, under the belief that supply from extreme agricultural landscapes would naturally meet domestic demand.

Author

• Matthew Turetsky, Carnegie Mellon University