I actually kind of felt like this deserved a post on its own because I think not many people realize that the demand for quinoa, which provides a ridiculously expensive source of all the essential amino acids and central to the “new” vegan diet, is causing near anarchy in Bolivia as the prices get driven up and up.
According to one farmer quoted in the story, “Quinoa was always comida para los Indios [food for Indians.] Today it’s food for the world’s richest.”
Fights over territory previously considered worthless is now being fought over as prime land for growing the new cash crop, and have resulted in kidnappings, injuries, and bombings.
It’s also destroying the environment, since everyone is selling their llamas and planting quinoa instead, which is stripping the soil from overfarming and lack of llama poop for fertilizer.
I’m sick and tired of vegans claiming that their food exists in a vacuum. I mean, are these people THIS far removed from understanding that we all exist in nature? That your stupid fucking quinoa, your excuse to be more militant than ever, more elitist than ever, demanding everyone adhere to your dubious moral convictions, is destroying a country’s economy AND ecosystem? Because of a sudden, insatiable demand for their Indigenous peoples’ food?
Half the world’s quinoa supply is grown in Bolivia.
Also, this article doesn’t mention, but indigenous people were banned from growing quinoa for centuries by the Spanish because it was so connected to their spiritual traditions and ceremonies. They denigrated it as heathen Indian food. So the native people weren’t allowed to eat their own traditional food. And then suddenly white people want quinoa, so now the indigenous people are FORCED to make so much of it it’s destroying their country, but they STILL can’t eat it because it’s all expensive and produced for foreigners.
These posters are just as douchey as the vegans they bash but the issue is definitely worth sharing.
The Vegan Quinoa "Superfood" Demand is Destroying Bolivia
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