The Quinoa Bust: The Making and Unmaking of an Andean Miracle Crop

This talk traces the social, ecological, technological and political work that went into transforming a humble Andean grain into a development miracle crop and also highlights that project’s unintended consequences. Based in a longitudinal ethnography centered around Puno, Perú, the main quinoa production area in the world’s chief quinoa exporting country, this research shows how even efforts based in the best of intentions—counteracting the homogenization of global food supply, empowering small-scale farmers, revaluing local food cultures, and adapting agricultural systems to climate change—can generate new kinds of oppression. At a time when so-called forgotten foods are increasingly positioned as sustainable development tools, quinoa’s story offers a cautionary tale of fleeting benefits and ambivalent results.

This event is co-sponsored by the Anthropology Department.