Abstract

    This paper will discuss the domestication of Chenopodium quinoa, commonly known as quinoa. It will cover the people who originally cultivated and domesticated it, why it is an appealing staple, and why it was virtually unknown by Western society until recent decades. This paper reveals the imbalance that has been caused by increased international demand for quinoa and discusses the effects this imbalance has had on the areas where quinoa is produced.

 

Introduction

     Quinoa - The lost crop of the Incas. Regardless of if you can wrap your tongue around the pronunciation (kee-no-ah or keen-wa?) chances are that your tongue has come into contact with this grain-like seed at some point or another. People of the Andes in Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Bolivia have lived off domesticated Chenopodium quinoa since as far back as 5,000 years BCE (Maughan et al. 2007). However, the crop remained little more than a curiosity outside of South America for years, found in the Western world only in health food shops or in the labs of researchers. That has all changed in the last few decades, since the “lost crop of the Incas” was found by NASA scientists who were searching decades ago for an ideal food for long-term human space missions (Romero and Shahriari 2011). Since NASA’s “discovery” in 1993, the popularity of the grain has extended out of health food stores and research labs and into nearly every supermarket in North America and Europe. It has gradually reached celebrity status in the Western world, the culmination of which was demonstrated in 2013 when the UN Food and Agriculture Organization declared it to be International Year of Quinoa in recognition of the crop's resilience, adaptability and its potential contribution in the fight against hunger and malnutrition (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Office 2013).

     Surprisingly, in 2011, two years before the UN declared The International Year of Quinoa,  the New York Times had exposed what they called “quinoa’s unpalatable truth”(Romero and Shahriari 2011). As demand for quinoa is soaring in rich countries, the surge has helped raise farmers’ incomes in some of the hemisphere’s poorest countries. However, it has been found that fewer members of the surrounding community can afford it. These patterns are occurring in all South American countries where the changes in the agrarian economy due to quinoa have been the same. For example, while quinoa prices have almost tripled over the past five years, Bolivia’s consumption of the staple fell 34 percent over the same period, according to the country’s agricultural ministry. This has hastened the citizens embrace of cheaper, processed foods and is raising fears of malnutrition in a country that has long struggled with it (Romero and Shahriari, 2011). Additionally, the rapid increase in quinoa production is stirring up concerns about environmental implications quinoa production has intensified because of increasing prices on the international market, causing  its sustainable production to be in severe crisis (Jacobson 2011).

    The people of Andean communities, descendants of the same people that domesticated quinoa thousands of years ago, are now unable to afford this grain that has been such a critical part of their culture and daily subsistence for so long. Additionally, drastic increases in production levels in the areas that once grew only enough for their own consumption have caused negative effects on the land. It seems as though the Inca’s  “mother of all grains” is being soiled by its children in order to satisfy Western demand (Cusack 1984).

 

What is Quinoa?

      Quinoa, which is often assumed to be a cereal, is actually a pseudo cereal, since it is a member of the Goosefoot Family (Chenopodiaceae) and not a true grass family (Bruno 2006). Other plants in the Goosefoot family include such plants as sugar beets, Swiss chard, spinach, and Lamb's quarters. Quinoa is an annual herb that produces a panicle (a branched cluster of flowers) containing small, round and flat seeds called achenes, which is the part of the plant that is typically consumed. According to archaeologist Maria C. Bruno, who has spent extensive time exploring the morphology of domesticated quinoa, over 120 different varieties of quinoa are known, but the most commonly cultivated and commercialized are white quinoa, red quinoa, and black quinoa. In many areas of South America, but especially in the Andes, quinoa seeds are employed to make flour for biscuits and cakes, added directly into soups, eaten as a breakfast “cereal” and even used to make a very popular fermented drink called chicha blanca. The fresh leaves and tender shoots of the plant are eaten raw in salads, or cooked and eaten as a vegetable. Additionally, the young sprouts can also be added to salads or eaten plain. As I mentioned before, quinoa seeds (usually referred to just as quinoa) also been incorporated into Western diets in recent years, mostly as a replacement for rice. Quinoa plants are quite beautiful -  autumnal colored flowers on whimsical stalks that range in height from 60 to 125 cm. Quinoa is found in severe environments such as the "altiplano" (high mountain plains) and alkaline salt flats, to relatively moderate, fertile valley areas and moist coastal forests. In the highly elevated regions of the Andes, quinoa is a staple because corn and wheat is not able to compete at these high altitudes and sometimes cannot even grown at all.

     Not only is quinoa a versatile and resilient plant, but it is also very healthy. There is abundant research regarding the superior nutrition content of quinoa, including the original report written by NASA. In  a study titled Nutrition facts and functional potential of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa willd.), an ancient Andean grain: a review, the authors discuss the biochemical and nutritional content of quinoa (Vega-Galvez et al. 2010). In their assessment, they determine quinoa to be an extremely “functional food” because its grains have “higher nutritive value than traditional cereals and it is a promising worldwide cultivar for  human consumption and nutrition” and have promise of lowering the risk of various diseases. The NASA report more or less echoes this review, praising quinoa for its extensive nutritional benefits.   According to the NASA report, “quinoa has an excellent balance between oil, fat, and protein and has a unique composition of amino acids” (Schlick and Bubenheim 1993). These attributes that sparked NASA’s attention have also been contributing factors to quinoa’s popularity (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2013).

 

The Domestication of Chenopodium quinoa

    The first use of wild quinoa in Andean society was probably primarily as a source of food from its versatile leaves and seeds. Existing historical evidence, mainly depictions of its morphology on pottery from the Tiahuanaco culture in Western Bolivia, illustrate a quinoa plant with very few panicles along its stem, which imply a more primitive strains of the plant. The is a consensus that domesticated quinoa originated in the area surrounding Lake Titicaca Basin in the southern portion of the Andean Antiplano (a high plateau) between 3,000 and 5,000 years BCE. This is the believed area of domestication because the shores of Lake Titicaca  present the greatest genetic diversity and therefore is the most likely center of origin. The oldest archeological remains of domesticated quinoa date to 5000 BC (Maughan et al. 2007).  There are also archeological discoveries of quinoa in tombs of Tarapacá, Calama and Arica in Chile, and in different regions of Peru (Margarita 2010). The area of ancient cultivation extends from Andean Altiplano to regions of Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Northern Chile, and Colombia. Compared to the morphology of the wild variety, domesticated quinoa has a larger seed size (from about 1mm to 2mm) and  a thinner, smoother seed coat, which was favorable because it reduced germination dormancy. The thinner seed coat also results in a lighter seed color. It also grows a panicle  that has more flowers and therefore more seeds per plant. (Bruno 2006).

    At the time of the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in 1532, quinoa, potatoes, and maize were the principal staple foods in Andean South America, with quinoa cultivation extending slightly beyond the region occupied by the Incas (Cusack 1984). After the conquest of the Incas, quinoa production slowed as it was gradually displaced by crops preferred by the conquistadors. Sacred to the Incas, quinoa was referred to by them as chisaya mama, or the mother of all grains. Legend has it that each year, the Incan emperor would sow the first quinoa seeds in a dignified ceremony. It is possible that because quinoa held such a high position in Inca culture and religious ceremonies that the Spanish conquistadores suppressed its cultivation purposefully in an effort to eliminate traditional Inca religious rites. Unlike maize and potatoes, which were adopted by European settlers, quinoa remained to be a crop cultivated only by indigenous people for their own personal consumption. Quinoa cultivation continued to decline even into modern times as rural farmers migrated to urban centers, incentives were paid to farmers to plant barley, faba beans, and oats instead of quinoa, and increased dependence on imported food discouraged quinoa cultivation. However, as I stated before, the exceptional nutritional characteristics of quinoa were discovered by Western societies in the last few decades and since then, it’s demand has grown exponentially and communities in the Andean regions of Bolivia, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador and increasing production to meet the demand.

 

Effects of 21st Century Western Demand

    The Political-Economics of Developing Markets versus Satisfying Food Needs is a study that criticizes food aid policy and economic development  because it “maximally benefits wealthy countries at the cost of reduced access to developing countries” (Brett 2010). Using Bolivia as a case study, John Brett of the Department of Anthropology at University of Colorado describes the consequences of international food aid policy. In his point of view, current food as policy favors the disposal of excess commodity products in poor countries in the name of “food aid”. Simultaneously, economically liberal trade policies favor the shifting of highly nutritious local products to wealthy countries in the name of “economic development”. There is no denying that the quinoa market in Bolivia has exploded as a result of demand in North America and Europe. A graph in this study shows a line depicting quinoa exports in metric tons from Bolivia to North America and Europe (Brett 2010). From 1998 to 2001 alone, the amount of quinoa jumps from 1,688,552 tons to  2,270,289 tons. Note that this was back in 2001, 12 years before the International Year of Quinoa. Since 2001 the market has probably grown substantially, but I could not find an up-to-date account of exportation, only that Bolivia earned $64m from quinoa exports in 2011, 36% more than in 2010 (Bland 2012). According to Brett, Bolivia has been a major recipient of U.S. food aid, much of it in the form of surplus wheat. The heavy subsidization of wheat flour ensures a steady supply of calories to a population burdened by extreme poverty. However, he has found in his study that simultaneously, the success in international markets of quinoa has resulted in  steep local price increases. This has made a highly nutritious and traditional food source become largely unavailable to the majority of the population. The study was done in the Bolivian city of El Alto, which was a small town of approximately 10,000 in the mid-1980s, but is now a city of over a million people. The data for this article were collected primarily through a research project on dietary decision-making conducted in urban and peri-urban El Alto in 2001–2002, and focused on interviews of local poor women conducted in 2007–2008. What Brett discovered proved true all of the fears highlighted in the article published by the New York Times.      Despite the fact that when asked, quinoa was ranked by participants in the study to be both  a highly nutritious and highly valued food, the 24- hour dietary recalls found that in El Alto, only two out of 57 respondents included quinoa in part of a meal. However, each participant in the dietary recall included pasta or bread, which generally fell at the other end of the scale in ranking. Additionally, in the interviews he conducted, a common sentiment that individuals expressed was that that if they had more money to buy food, they would replace the bread they ate with quinoa. Brett blames this on current food-aid policy and economic development that work in tandem to make this ancient staple unattainable for the people who once subsisted on it, while supplementing their diet with calories from our unwanted surplus wheat.

    Along with criticism relating to policy and international market, changes in quinoa production in Bolivia has also been scholarly scrutinization for negative environmental impact. One such criticism is found the The Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science in the article titled “The Situation for Quinoa and Its Production in Southern Bolivia: From Economic Success to Environmental Disaster”. The author states that the study “is not to be regarded as an original scientific publication, as it rather is a reflection and presentation of the author’s personal impression on the changes, which have occurred in the quinoa-producing area of southern Bolivia” (Jacobson, 2011). This study focuses on the southern altiplano of Bolivia, south of Oruro. This area relies nearly entirely on the production of quinoa and breeding of llamas, which have also been selected as the two commodities of priority to the government to increase the income of the country. However, currently quinoa is facing increasing problems in production,  and the blame is being placed on increased export market and price.      The main environmental problems are related to soil degradation from the increasing use of tractors and reduced access to animal manure which is the result of a drastic change in the production system (Jacobsen, 2011). Natural vegetation that previously served as livestock feed is being increasingly replaced by the expansion of the agricultural frontier (Jacobsen, 2011). With less livestock feed, the traditional llamas have been moved to areas with no quinoa cultivation, taking with them the traditional use of their manure in agriculture. According to Jacobson, “The situation in the south [of Bolivia]  is critical. An ecological disaster is threatening, turning the whole region into a desert, making it impossible to grow the only source available for food production and income generation among the rural population, the quinoa.” In order to solve this, he calls for a reform of land and water management, but the expresses fear that change will not occur soon enough as the market continues to grow and strive to meet higher demands.

 

In Conclusion

     Chenopodium quinoa, domesticated between 3000 and 5000 BCE, was domesticated by the ancient Inca of the Andes Mountains due to its versatility. Since that time it has been a huge part of Andean daily diet and cultural practices, despite the discouragement of its cultivation by Spanish conquistadores. It remained a crop known only in that small region of the Earth until Western nations such as England and the United States discovered its incredible nutritional composition. An international desire for this healthy staple has caused a huge spike in demand for quinoa, which has raised the price, making it unaffordable for the Andean people who grow it. This increased demand has also resulted in increased production, which is so drastic that it is damaging the environment of the regions that grow it. As of now, almost no farmers outside of the arid mountains and coastal valleys of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Chile cultivate quinoa. That means if an individual did decide to educate themselves and stop supporting the market that is hurting those South American countries, they would have to stop buying quinoa altogether. According to NPR’s blog “The Salt”, however, that is all about the change (Bland 2012). The quinoa craze has inspired farmers in the cooler, northern regions of North America to start growing their own, with the help of plant breeders and scientists who study the biology and economics of quinoa. They say that there is extreme potential for quinoa growing in areas such as the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest to take off within the next few years. My hope is that quinoa cultivation takes off within the United States, so that the “mother grain of all grain” of the ancient Incas can be accessible again to its people and the land it was first domesticated on.

 

Works Cited

Bland, Alastair

2012 Quinoa Craze Inspires North America To Start Growing Its Own. NPR.  

 

Brett, John A.

2010 The Political-Economics of Developing Markets Versus Satisfying Food Needs. Food and Foodways 18(1-2): 28-42.

 

Bruno, Maria C.

2006 A Morphological Approach to Documenting the Domestication of Chenopodium in the Andes. Documenting Domestication: New Genetic and Archaeological Paradigms. The University of California Press, Berkeley.

 

Cusack, David F.

1984 Quinoa: grain of the Incas. Ecologist 14:21–31

 

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Office.

2013 International Year of Quinoa Home- International Year of Quinoa 2013.

 

Jacobsen, S‐E.

2011 The Situation for Quinoa and its Production in Southern Bolivia: from economic success to environmental disaster. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science 197(5): 390-399.

 

Margarita, Miranda, Antonio Vega-Gálvez, Issis Quispe-Fuentes, María José Rodríguez, Héctor Maureira, and Enrique A. Martínez

2010 Nutrition facts and functional potential of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.), an ancient Andean grain: a review. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 90(15): 2541-2547.

 

Maughan, Peter J., Alejandro Bonifacio , Craig E. Coleman, Eric N. Jellen, Mikel R. Stevens, Daniel J. Fairbanks

2007 Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa). Pulses, sugar and tuber crops. Vol. 3. Brigham Young University, Provo, UT.

 

Romero, Simon, and Sara Shahriari

2011 Quinoa’s Global Success Creates Quandary at Home. The New York Times.

 

Schlick, Greg, and David L. Bubenheim

1993 Quinoa: An emerging" new" crop with potential for CELSS. Vol. 1. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ames Research Center, CA