news
Quinoa takes root in UK by Josiah Meldrum
Quinoa is a controversial foodstuff. It was known as the “mother of all grains” by the Incas, but it’s actually a seed from the goosefoot family of flowering plants (chenopodium), which includes spinach and beets, as well as those staples of British foraging, Good King Henry and fat hen. It was banned from the Andes by the Spanish Conquistadors, but Western demand may have done a better job of removing it from Latin American homes – the price has trebled on world food markets in the last six years. It’s prized by many as a healthy alternative to meat and to coeliacs because it’s gluten-free. Its also packed with amino acids but, according to some campaigners, it’s being replaced in Bolivian and Peruvian diets by cheap imported junk food. Perhaps most surprising of all, this ancient Andean superfood can be grown in the UK. Essex farmer Peter Fairs has actually been growing quinoa since 1985. Back then, few had heard of it, let alone eaten what was to become a ubiquitous part of the health-conscious Westerner’s diet. Peter recalls giving away 1,500 sample packs of his home-grown quinoa at a food show in 1989 to no avail. “Looking back,” he says, “the public weren’t quite ready for it and so, despite our efforts, it didn’t take off.” But Peter didn’t give up.
Recognising the dietary and agricultural benefits of quinoa, he continued to develop his own strains, selecting the best plants each year, saving the seed and replanting.
“There’s room in the world for both British and Andean farmers of quinoa” “Quinoa is actually fairly easy to grow and needs few inputs, but it’s tricky to harvest because you need excellent weather in mid-September,” he says. “More problematically, many varieties produce high levels of saponins – bitter tasting, soapy chemicals – which protect the seeds. These need to be removed. That’s a complex and technically challenging process.” In recent years Peter has been working with Hodmedod, a company sourcing and supplying British staples like peas and beans, which grew out of Transition Norwich’s Resilient Food Project.
The partnership has identified ways to clean Peter’s high saponin quinoa and hopes to begin selling his 2013 harvest soon. Back in the Andes, there’s confusion about whether locals are being priced out of quinoa. Some say it’s mostly being exported in response to rising world prices. But the Bolivian government says its people are eating more quinoa not less. What’s clear is that exports have allowed Bolivian farmers to increase their monthly income from around US$35 to over US$220. However, that has to be weighed against the risks of creating an unsustainable global market on the back of cheap fossil fuels. Peter Fairs thinks there’s room in the world for both British and Andean farmers of quinoa. “If Bolivia and Peru can add value,” he says, “by processing, securing Fair Trade and organic certifications and by using their status as the home of quinoa, then they can ensure quinoa can be grown sustainably in the Andes for another few thousand years, as well as earning an income for farmers and feeding their communities.” Josiah Meldrum is a member of Sustainable Bungay and a Director of Hodmedod. www.hodmedods.co.uk
Quinoa is easy to grow in the UK but hard to harvest. Photo by Josiah Meldrum
SolarAid have sold 700,000 solar lamps in East Africa, replacing smoky, expensive-to-run kerosene lanterns with clean, reliable solar alternatives. Photo by SolarAid
It’s happening! by Mal Chadwick Did you know that in Bangladesh, a new solar panel is installed every 90 seconds? That the average American drives 960 fewer miles per year than they did in 2004? That Liverpool Council has just created the city’s first new allotments since the Second World War? There’s no shortage of bad news on climate change, and in the face of all this, it’s easy to overlook the good stuff: technological breakthroughs; ambitious projects succeeding against the odds; new laws and infrastructure that make it easier to do the right thing. The good things that are being done barely scratch the surface of global emissions for the moment, but their value can’t be measured in tonnes or kilowatts alone. What these small victories offer is a sense of possibility. And if we’re serious about reengineering industrial civilisation in the space of a few decades, that’s something we just can’t do without. But for this to work, people need to see the good stuff happening, and understand how it all fits together. That’s why the 10:10 Campaign has created the #itshappening project. It’s a showcase of the best climate success stories from around
the world – with small personal triumphs and huge global trends lined up side by side. Translated from climate-ese and given some visual fairy dust, the individual stories look pretty impressive. But together, they add up to something much bigger: the first glimpse of a better world taking shape.
“People need to see the good stuff happening, and understand how it all fits together” Nobody thinks that these things alone are enough, or that the low carbon transition will take care of itself. Every project needs to scale up; every trend needs to accelerate, and all this needs to pave the way for better structures and systems. So #itshappening is a reminder that although there’s a huge job ahead of us, we’ve got some fantastic tools to work with. Mal Chadwick is Content and Community Manager at the 10:10 Campaign. To see the latest #itshappening stories (and submit your own), visit www.1010global.org/ itshappening.
3