To be honest, around this time last year I didn’t even know what quinoa was, better yet how to pronounce it. Today, it’s a staple on our grocery list and we eat it at least once a week…from quinoa flakes in our homemade muffins and museli to our new favorite quinoa salads. This weekend, I came across this article in the Guardian and can’t shake it. I know we’ve had quite a few ‘food for thoughts’ recently that have actually centered around our food, and this is yet another one to chew on.
But in the case of quinoa, there’s a ghastly irony when the Andean peasant’s staple grain becomes too expensive at home because it has acquired hero product status among affluent foreigners preoccupied with personal health, animal welfare and reducing their carbon “foodprint”. Viewed through a lens of food security, our current enthusiasm for quinoa looks increasingly misplaced.
Yikes. Are you on the quinoa bandwagon? Do I/we stop and think where my/our food is coming from? Does it add up? What do I do about it?
-M.C.
the graduate wife 