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Abstract
In the last three decades, quinoa has gone from a globally obscure food to an internationally traded product with rising global consumer demand. This transformation has had complex social and ecological impacts on the indigenous agropastoral communities of the southern Altiplano region of Bolivia. This article analyses the role that global quinoa markets have played in the repopulation and revitalisation of this region, previously hollowed out by out-migration. Yet, it also points to a number of local tensions and contradictions generated or magnified by this process, as peasants struggle to harness the quinoa boom as a force of ‘sustainable re-peasantisation’ and ‘living well’. Finally, the article suggests that the food sovereignty movement should place greater emphasis on examining the culturally and historically specific challenges facing re-peasantisation in particular places.
Acknowledgements
I am deeply grateful to the dozens of individuals and organisations in Bolivia and the USA who lent their generous collaboration to this research. I also wish to thank Christina Bronsing-Lazalde, Carly Finkle and Brock Hicks for their invaluable research assistance, and the editors and anonymous reviewers of this special issue for their thoughtful feedback. As always, any errors or flaws in the analysis are my own.
Notes
1. Quinoa is not a cereal grain, but rather a cereal-like seed, which is why it is often referred to as a ‘pseudocereal.’
2. Interviews fell into three subject groups – quinoa producers, private sector actors and ‘experts’ (academics and NGO workers) – and were designed to ascertain subjects’ understanding and interpretation of the opportunities and challenges presented by the recent boom in Northern consumer demand for quinoa. The names of all interview subjects have been changed, and identifying information removed, to protect their confidentiality.
3. Desmarais et al., Food Sovereignty, 2.
4. Desmarais, La Vía Campesina, 37.
5. World Health Organization (WHO), “Urban Population Growth.”
6. Araghi, “Global Depeasantization,” 338.
7. Kay, “Reflections on Latin American Rural Studies,” 926.
8. Radcliffe, “The Geographies of Indigenous Self-representation in Ecuador,” 16.
9. Bernstein, Class Dynamics of Agrarian Change.
10. Van der Ploeg, “The Peasantries of the Twenty-first Century,” 21.
11. Van der Ploeg, The New Peasantries, 7.
12. Ibid, emphasis added.
13. Burnett and Murphy, “What Place for International Trade in Food Sovereignty?,” 4.
14. Bernstein, “Food Sovereignty via the ‘Peasant Way’,” 1032 (emphasis added).
15. Ibid., 1046.
16. Van der Ploeg, “Peasant-driven Agricultural Growth,” 1022.
17. Bebbington and Batterbury, “Transnational Livelihoods and Landscapes,” 370.
18. Tapia, Cultivos Andinos Subexplotados.
19. Murra, “The Economic Organization of the Inca State.”
20. Hellin and Higman, “Crop Diversity and Livelihood Security in the Andes.”
21. D’Altroy, “Andean Land Use at the Cusp of History”; and Kolata, Ancient Inca.
22. Dong et al., “Vulnerability of Worldwide Pastoralism to Global Changes,” 9.
23. Kolata, Ancient Inca.
24. Healy, “Towards an Andean Rural Development Paradigm?,” 28.
25. Healy, Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate; and Brett, “The Political-Economics of Developing Markets.”
26. Pérez et al., “The Promise and the Perils of Agricultural Trade Liberalization.”
27. Ibid.
28. Cazorla et al., Rural Migration in Bolivia.
29. Ibid; and Pérez et al., “The Promise and the Perils of Agricultural Trade Liberalization.”
30. Desmarais et al., Food Sovereignty.
31. Goodman et al., Alternative Food Networks.
32. Laguna, “El Impacto del Desarrollo del Mercado de la Quinua.”
33. Healy, Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate.
34. Rojas et al., Granos Andinos. Rojas et al. identify five quinoa ‘ecotypes’ associated with different Andean regions: sea level (primarily coastal Chile); yungas (1500–2000 m); valleys (2500–3500 m); northern and central Altiplano (Peru and Bolivia, where the highest diversity is found); and salt flat quinoa or ‘royal quinoa’ (quinua real) of the southern Altiplano of Boliva.
35. Laguna, “El Impacto del Desarrollo del Mercado de la Quinua.”
36. Thrupp, Bittersweet Harvests for Global Supermarkets.
37. Ibid.
38. Interview with Juan Carlos, Marketing Director at ANAPQUI, La Paz, July 22, 2013 (author’s translation).
39. Laguna et al., “Del Altiplano Sur Bolivariano hasta el Mercado Global,” 68 (author’s translation).
40. AVSF, Quinua y Territorio Nuevos Desafíos.
41. “El Consumo de Quinua en el País se Triplicó en los Últimos 4 Años.” La Razón, February 17, 2013. http://www.la-razon.com/economia/consumo-quinua-triplico-ultimos-anos_0_1780622010.html.
42. FAOstat, “Food Balance Sheet: Bolivia (Plurinational State of).” Accessed March 28, 2014. http://faostat3.fao.org/faostat-gateway/go/to/download/FB/FB/E.
43. Perez et al., “Food Crisis, Small-scale Farmers, and Markets in the Andes.”
44. Burnett and Murphy, “What Place for International Trade in Food Sovereignty?,” 8.
45. “Quinua Duplica Precio en Año Internacional.” Associated Press, March 21, 2014. http://noticias.latino.msn.com/latinoamerica/bolivia/quinua-duplica-precio-en-a%C3%B1o-internacional-1.
46. Fundación Milenio, “Quinua en Bolivia.”
47. Vallejos Mamani et al., Medio Ambiente y Producción de Quinua.
48. Jacobsen, “The Situation for Quinoa.”
49. Rojas et al., Study on the Social, Environmental and Economic Impacts of Quinoa Promotion.
50. Kolata, “Quinoa”; and Kolata, Ancient Inca.
51. Laguna, “El Impacto del Desarrollo del Mercado de la Quinua.”
52. Ibid.
53. Interview with Daniel, quinoa producer and ANAPQUI member, Salinas de Garci Mendoza, July 18, 2013 (author’s translation).
54. AVSF, Quinua y Territorio Nuevos Desafíos.
55. “‘Boom’ de la Quinua Provoca Regreso de Migrantes.” El Potosí, September 12, 2012.
56. INE, “67% de la Población del País Habita en Áreas Urbanas.”
57. Ibid.
58. Interview with Gustavo, independent quinoa producer. La Paz, June 10, 2013 (author’s translation).
59. Urioste, Los Nietos de la Reforma Agraria. Those who have moved to another rural region – generally migrating from the highlands to more tropical elevations – are not referred to as residentes, but rather as colonizadores or settlers.
60. Ibid.
61. Quoted in AVSF, Quinua y Territorio, 49, author’s translation.
62. AVSF, Quinua y Territorio; AVSF, Quinua y Territorio Nuevos Desafíos; and Ormachea and Ramírez, Propiedad Colectiva de la Tierra.
63. Interview with Pedro, quinoa producer and COPROQUIR member (regional chapter of ANAPQUI), Irpani, July 19, 2013 (author’s translation).
64. Borras et al., “Land Grabbing in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
65. Hall, “Land Grabs, Land Control, and Southeast Asian Crop Booms.”
66. Interview with the National Coordinator of Agronomists and Veterinarians Without Borders, La Paz, May 27, 2013 (author’s translation).
67. Interview with Richard, independent quinoa producer. La Paz, June 10, 2013 (author’s translation).
68. It should be noted that this dichotomy does not always hold. There are most certainly some extractivist estantes as well as ecologically and culturally sensitive residentes.
69. Ormachea and Ramírez, Propiedad Colectiva de la Tierra.
70. Bebbington, “Globalized Andes?,” 371.
71. Walsh-Dilley, “Negotiating Hybridity in Highland Bolivia,” 19.
72. Her study nonetheless identifies producers – apparently in the minority – who see reciprocal labour as a waste of time, preferring instead to employ machinery and paid workers.
73. Bebbington, “Globalized Andes?,” 431.
74. Interview with Walter Mamani, quinoa producer and faculty at the Technical University of Oruro (UTO), Oruro, July 17, 2013 (author’s translation).
75. Zimmerer, “Environmental Governance through ‘Speaking like an Indigenous State’.”
76. Gudynas, “Buen Vivir,” 441.
77. Interview with Walter Mamani, quinoa producer and faculty at the UTO, Oruro, July 17, 2013 (author’s translation).
78. Ibid.
79. Quoted in Gudynas, “Good Life.”
80. Ibid.
81. Van der Ploeg, The New Peasantries, 37–38 (emphasis added).
82. Desmarais, La Vía Campesina, 37.
83. Qullasuyu refers to the region of the Inca empire that is present-day Bolivia.
84. “Según el CONAMAQ, el Gobierno debe Priorizar Consumo Interno de Quinua.” El Potosí, March 18, 2013. http://www.elpotosi.net/2013/03/18/19.php.
85. Interview with Juan Carlos, Marketing Director at ANAPQUI, La Paz, July 22, 2013 (author’s translation).
