This is my comeback post. My views leanheavily towards traditional diets matched to geographical area of residence. Iwanted to start by focusing on two of the biggest intruders in the area of ancientfoods. They are ancient foods themselves. Keep reading for a classic story ofhow too much good in the wrong place and time can be indistinguishable from evil.
Both quinoa and soy aren't grains, but they are the faddestgrain-alternatives to hit us in a long while. They are not only high inprotein, they are even complete proteins, a very rare feat in the plantkingdom. For Indians, they fit very nicely into our regimented world oftraditional foods. Quinoa substitutes for sabudana and rava so well in upmasand pulaos (the aftertaste is a sacrifice at the altar of one's health -whatever that may mean these days). And soy, well it substitutes for anything,for grains of course, for beans, for milk and more popularly, in its heavily processedform, for meat.
What follows is a story of the devastation that has trailed behindthese incredibly versatile grains (or grainoids). There are untold storiesbehind every fad, behind every new super-food that will “transform yourhealth”. Changing traditional diets comes with a cross that we must bear, orthat others must bear for us.
High protein: check. Traditionalfood: check. Low fat: check. No dead animals: check. In fact the New York Times notesthat NASA scientists declared quinoa to be the perfect balanced food for spacemissions.
The untold back story of Quinoa exploded with a NYTimes article in early 2011. Several othermagazines have since noted that Quinoa’s price in Bolivia has tripled since 2006 making it unaffordable to many of those that cultivate it. In Lima, chicken isnow cheaper than quinoa and of course imported junk food is too, as it is anywhereelse. Somehow high processing costs + high transportation costs alwaystranslate to super cheap food. Sadly, over the same time period, quinoaconsumption in Bolivia has dropped by a third, being replaced by rice, noodlesand junk food. Malnutrition among children in quinoa-growing areas has risen.
Diverse rotation farming in Peru and Bolivia has turned intomono-cropping of quinoa over the years, a very dangerous practice potentiallystripping soil of nutrients, and creating an extremely unbalanced environment.An article published in 2010 in The Guardian noted a similar story withasparagus cultivation (also in Peru). Asparagus is a water intensive vegetablethat has caused drought like conditions in its native Inca valley, with amassive decrease in the water table. Mono cropping is involved in soycultivation as well, and will continue to be a cultivation method for all fadfoods that have a sudden increase in demand.
Vegetarians are one of the biggest markets for Quinoa and Soy.Given that the ethics of veganism hinges heavily on ecological destruction dueto confined lot animal operations (i.e., factory farms), the ecologicalfootprint of soy (which is the go-to food of choice for a majority of convertedvegetarians) is ironical: Soy cultivation is one of the two main reasons fordeforestation of the Amazon (the other being cattle ranching, quitejustly).
The upsides to the stories are similar. Asparagus cultivation hasresulted in 10,000 new jobs in the Inca valley, leaving us with the question:should one buy asparagus from Peru so the farmers can go to work, or not buy itso their children don’t face drought? Ditto for Quinoa, except the scale ofjobs created in Peru and Bolivia is much higher.
But we don’t really buy Soy and Quinoa because we can send morepeople in the Altiplano to work. Neither do we eat them because they are tasty(most people can attest that both foods have a highly acquired taste, theactivation energy for which is high enough that you would have to besufficiently motivated otherwise).
Traditional food habits of Asians have long been a justificationfor the safety of eating Soy. But as much respected food author and sciencewriter Michael Pollan says, there isn’t really much record of any cultureeating as much soy in as many forms as is being consumed now. Quinoa, or theother hand hasn’t been modified much yet. It is likely safe, but perhapsunnecessary.
The point that I hope this discussion leads to is: Eat local. Eattraditional. Eat traditional and local if you can. What if traditional isvegetarian? Can one eat local and vegetarian? I am not sure, if you don’t livein a tropical country. For sure, one can’t eat local and vegan in temperateclimates. What does one eat in winter? What then, is the most ethical way toeat?
The scale is tight: there lie “health”, animal welfare andfashionable tastes on one side, and ecological devastation, malnutrition,genetic modification and jobs on the other. What will you choose?
References:
1 comment:
Great read Vish and quite educational for me! Brings in a totally different perspective.
Post a Comment