International Year of Quinoa

Photo by Luiz Rampelotto/AgenciaAlba
Top officials from the United Nations (UN) and the Andean community of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru today (20 February) launched the ‘International Year of Quinoa’ at the General Assembly to raise awareness of the nutritional, economic, environmental and cultural value of a food that has been traditionally cultivated for thousands of years.

While recognizing that the quinoa cultivation was expanding from the Andean region to Kenya, India, North America and Europe and that while quinoa growers were small-scale farmers, the crop held the promise of improved income Ban ki-Moon also warned about potential pitfalls that came with the export demands. He said that “the poor risked being excluded from their staple grain in local markets in favour of cheaper, less nutritious processed food.” And added that “even growers can be tempted to sell all their crops and eat less healthily”.

In 2011 the General Assembly adopted a resolution honouring quinoa with its own year. In doing so, the 193-member body sought to recognize the Andean indigenous people “who have managed to preserve quinoa in its natural state as food for present and future generations, through ancestral practices of living in harmony with nature.” The theme for this year is “a future sown thousands of years ago.”
Bolivian President Evo Morales Ayma, a former farmer himself, told the launch that with a looming global food crisis, the Andean communities had several proposals and one of them was Quinoa.

Also noting that since gaining popularity, Quinoa’s price had risen globally while becoming a more attractive crop for large companies, Morales said that today Bolivia was working with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to make Quinoa’s “virtues known” while changing the transnational model which had turned the right of the world populations to eat “into a business”.

And FAO’s Director-General José Graziano da Silva recalling the Millennium Development goals noted that in order for all those countries to reach those goals, there was an additional boost needed. He said, “Let’s do it while taking advantage of the moment to reach a newer goal for the post 2015 to eradicate hunger from earth completely”.

Morales had been named Special Ambassador to FAO for the International Year of Quinoa, along with the First Lady of Peru, Heredia Humala, who advocates for better nutrition for mothers and children. This year at the General Assembly both were named 2012 Ambassadors for the Year of Quinoa.

After receiving her certificate from Graziano da Silva, Peru’s First lady, Nadine Heredia de Humala while noting Quinoa attracted international attention in face of the challenges to feed the planets population within a climate change context and shortage of water resources said that, “Its great capacity to adapt to drought, poor soils and different altitudes makes Quinoa into Hope”.

Following the special General Assembly event, In a meeting with President Morales on the sidelines of the launch, Ban applauded Bolivia’s initiative in pushing for quinoa’s distinction in 2013. They discussed the nutritional qualities and adaptability of the crop, as well as Bolivia’s difficulties in absorbing its international popularity.

At a press conference later in the day, Morales said that he didn’t really share the vision that because Quinoa’s prices increased Bolivian indigenous populations would stop affording it. He said that “when our product has secure market positioning, the fare price, our brother farmers, original indigenous peoples find the way to produce and improve production, widen it”.

The Quinoa crop is widely adaptable, thriving in temperatures ranging from -8 degrees Celsius to 38 degrees Celsius, at sea level or 4,000 meters above, and is not impacted by low moisture.
This versatility makes quinoa a viable food option for areas with arid farming conditions and high malnutrition rates. FAO estimates that 1 billion people were affected by malnutrition in 2010, nearly all living in the developing world.

Source:UNTV