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Тема
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 Ще преглътнат ли веганите горчивата истина
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| Автор |
Aulus Vitellius Celsus (semper spamens) |
| Публикувано | 02.01.16 22:47 |
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за киноата?
До не много отдавна, киноата беше просто почти неизвестна зърнена култура от Перу, която можеше да се купи само в специализираните магазини. Дори не беше съвсем ясно как точно се произнася, но кулинарите бързо я обявиха за приятно нововъведение към диетата от ориз и кускус. Диетолозите също я одобриха, защото е с ниско съдържание на мазнини и се вписваше в правителствения съвет "базирайте ястията си на нишестето".
Кулинарните експериментатори харесаха леко горчивия й вкус и малките бели къдрички около зрънцата. Веганите прегърнаха киноата като добър заместител на месото - необичайно за зърнените храни, в киноата има доста протеини (между 14 и 18%). Тя съдържа и аминокиселни, които са доста трудни за набавяне от вегетарианците, които не искат да приемат хранителни добавки.
Продажбите потръгнаха. Киноата бе закичена с маркетинговия слоган "чудното зърно от Андите" и бързо се превърна в любимата политически коректна храна на противниците на месото и животинските страдания. Съответно цените изхвърчаха нагоре – от 2006 г. насам са се утроили – като някои от видовете киноа се продават с особено сладка печалба.
Но ето я и горчивата истина за киноата за тези, които имат чувалче от нея в килера. Гладът на Запада за киноа вдигна цените й толкова много, че по-бедните хора в Перу и Боливия, за които тя беше основна храна, вече не могат да си я позволят. Вносната junk food им излиза по-евтино. В Лима киноата вече струва повече от пилешко. В селските райони търсенето на киноа принуждава фермерите, които преди отглеждаха разнообразни култури, да сеят само киноа.
В действителност, търговията с киноа е още един притеснителен пример за вредните отношения между развитите и развиващите се страни. - Добронамерените и етични любители на здравословното хранене в развитите страни, без да искат причиняват бедност в развиващите се страни.
Това се превръща в поредната поучителна история за това как големият интерес към "екзотични" храни може да навреди на хранителния баланс на страната-производител.
Подобен е и примерът с аспержите – луксозният популярен зеленчук, който се продава на премиумни цени в западните супермаркети, в голямата си част също се произвежда в Перу. Там, в полупустинния район Ика, се отглеждат аспержи, които, между другото, изискват доста вода. В резултат на това, местните водоизточници, на които разчитат и жителите там, са почти изчерпани. Неправителствени организации изнасят данни, че работниците, ангажирани в отглеждането на аспержи, се трудят при нечовешки условия и едвам изхранват семействата си, докато износителите и супермаркетите трупат тлъсти печалби.
Соята, която веганите толкова обичат като заместител на месото и млякото, е друг проблематичен вносен продукт, който унищожава природата. За голям срам на тези, които я представят като бъдещето на човечеството и спасение от производството на месо, което унищожава природата, отглеждането на соя е една от двете основни причини за обезлесяването на Южна Америка. Заедно с отглеждането на добитък, създаването на плантации за соя води до изсичането на гори и унищожаването на големи тревисти райони.
Опитите да се отглежда киноа във Великобритания се провалиха и не са подновени. Но поне предизвикаха дискусия за необходимостта да се разчита повече на местно производство и по-малко на екзотични вносни култури.
В това отношение, всеядните във Великобритания са добре – в страната се произвеждат изобилие от месо и мляко, които да задоволяват нуждите им. Ако се разровят пазарските кошници на вегетарианците и веганите, обаче, се вижда, че техните храни са доста натоварени с дълги пътешествия.
Има някои обещаващи инициативи като компания в Норфък, която започна да произвежда бакла - растението, от което се прави фалафел като алтернатива на месото.
Но при киноата е крайно иронично, че растението, което доскоро изхранваше бедните селяни в Андите вече е непосилно за тях, защото богатите чужденци, загрижени за благосъстоянието на животните, здравето си, килограмите си и въглеродния си отпечатък, са решили също да се изхранват с него.
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Соята в Южна Америка се отглежда за фураж, сиреч за нуждите на дребнопишковците-трупогризци.
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Quinoa: ?
Quinoa's rise from local food to global commodity has carried a high environmental and social cost, but that doesn't mean you should stop eating it
(Picture: Quinoa harvest in Bolivia)
The quinoa harvest in Bolivia. The crop can withstand night frosts, 40C days, high altitudes and saline soil, and is one of the world's most nutritious foods. Photograph: Laurent Giraudou/ Laurent Giraudou/Corbis
"Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa?," thunders the headline of a recent . Hard to say, but reality check: It isn't just vegans who enjoy quinoa. Like many occasional meat eaters I know, I've been eating it for years. Quinoa is also big among . So quinoa's truth—unpalatable or not—isn't just for its vegan fans to bear.
So what is going on with this long-time staple of the Andes and newly emerged favorite of health-minded US eaters?
First, the good. Quinoa is the grain-like seed of a plant in the (other members include spinach, chard, and the wonderful edible weed ), and its appeal is immense. Twenty years ago, NASA researchers as potential astronaut chow, mainly for its superior nutrient density. No less an authority than the UN's hails it as "the only plant food that contains all the essential amino acids, trace elements and vitamins and contains no gluten." The FAO is almost breathlessly enthusiastic about quinoa—it has declared 2013 the and even runs a for it.
And quinoa has generally been a success for the people who grow it. Unlike other southern-hemisphere commodities prized in the global north, like coffee and cocoa, quinoa, for the most part, isn't grown on big plantations owned by a powerful elite. A 2003 Rodale article describes its cultural place in the Andean highlands, an area that encompasses parts of Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador:
Quinoa (pronounced keen-wá), a seed grain, has been cultivated in the Andean region for over 7,000 years and was considered sacred by the Inca Empire. The crop was relegated to status of animal feed by Spanish colonists, perhaps because of its religious significance and, later, shouldered almost completely out of production by cereals such as barley and wheat and other crops such as potatoes and corn.
Colonial agriculture never really worked very well in the highlands, despite the introduction of agrichemicals. "Pesticide and fertilizer use in Ecuador ... increased dramatically over the years," Rodale reports, "leading to depleted soil and a rise in associated health problems." But the new technologies failed to bring prosperity—"the farmers' yields were low, their return was almost nonexistent, and their children were suffering from malnutrition."
But then, in the 1990s, a variety of projects linking Andean smallholder farmers to do-gooder US importers began to crop up to re-establish traditional quinoa production for export markets. Today, by all accounts, the crop remains a financial success for Andean smallholders. In another recent —not the vegan-baiting one—The Guardian reported the price farmers get for their quinoa crop has tripled since 2006. "The crop has become a lifeline for the people of Bolivia's Oruro and Potosi regions, among the poorest in what is one of South America's poorest nations," the newspaper reported.
So what's the "unpalatable truth" that's causing all the handwringing? Escalating prices, while boosting farmers' incomes, are also helping drive down quinoa consumption in the Andes—including among the very farmers who grow it. Quinoa growers have "westernized their diets because they have more profits and more income," a Bolivian agronomist involved in the quinoa trade told The Guardian. "Ten years ago they had only an Andean diet in front of them. They had no choice. But now they do and they want rice, noodles, candies, Coke, they want everything!"
The economics are simple: "As the price has risen quinoa is consumed less and less in Bolivia. It's worth more to them [the producers] to sell it or trade it for pasta and rice. As a result, they're not eating it any more." In other words, farmers are starting to see quinoa as a product that's too valuable to eat—they can use the proceeds from selling to buy cheaper, but less nutrient-dense, staples like white rice. There's also a status issue—quinoa was once a subsistence product, and when people pull out of subsistence mode, there's a tendency to switch to higher-status foods, even if they're less healthy.
In urban areas, the situation is varied—The Guardian found quinoa to be ubiquitous in the Bolivia's largest city, La Paz, "where quinoa-based products from pizza crusts and hamburgers to canapes and breakfast cereals are displayed, Bolivia's growing middle class appear to be the principal consumers." But in the Peruvian capital, Lima, quinoa is emerging as a luxury product—it sells at a higher per-pound price than chicken, and for four times as much as rice, the paper reports.
Then there are land and environmental issues. As demand for quinoa surges, farmers are scrambling for new land to cultivate to take advantage of higher prices. The push is squeezing out older forms of sustainable agriculture, and putting serious pressure on soil fertility, as Time reported in :
Traditionally, quinoa fields covered 10% of this fragile ecosystem, llamas grazed on the rest. Now, llamas are being sold to make room for crops, provoking a soil crisis since the cameloid's guano is the undisputed best fertilizer for maintaining and restoring quinoa fields. (Other options like sheep poop appear to encourage pests.)
So can people like me, who prefer to avoid foods that are environmentally and socially destructive, eat it with a clear conscience? Not entirely. In a short period of time, quinoa has gone from a local staple to a global commodity. "When you transform a food into a commodity, there's inevitable breakdown in social relations and high environmental cost," as Tanya Kerssen, an analyst for Oakland-based last year.
But that doesn't mean we should stop eating quinoa; it just means we shouldn't eat quinoa without thinking it through. The Andean region is now governed by progressive, equality-minded politicians like Bolivian president Evo Morales—himself a former quinoa grower now serving as . In Bolivia, the government is buying quinoa and "incorporating the plant into a packet of foods supplied to thousands of pregnant and nursing women each month," The New York Times reports. And in Peru, the government is placing it in public-school breakfasts, The Guardian adds. Such programs can help ensure that non-wealthy Andeans aren't priced out of the market for this nutrient-dense regional foodstuff. (Of course, another option would be for the region's governments to just accept quinoa as a luxury good for the rich and focus on cheaper staples like rice and beans for the poor—but no one seems ready to embrace this option.)
While the Andes region will always be known as the birthplace of quinoa production, it needn't be the only place that produces quinoa. The that it's an extraordinarily diverse crop, with 3,000 varieties that thrive in a variety of climates. The organization calls it "crop with high potential to contribute to food security in various Regions worldwide."
In other words, Andean farmers could focus on growing it for themselves and for the region's teeming cities, and farmers in other regions could begin growing it for their surrounding markets. Already, quinoa is being grown successfully in the Colorado Rockies, and farmers in the Pacific Northwest are testing it out, too, NPR reports. According to , it's also "currently being cultivated in several countries in Europe and Asia with good yields." By adding supply, these initiatives could push the price of quinoa down to a level that's still profitable to Andean farmers but affordable to regional consumers. Globally, it's not hard to imagine a future in which quinoa pays farmers in multiple growing areas a decent return on their labor while remaining affordable for consumers of all income levels.
On the other hand, a global expansion of quinoa production could also cause its price to crash—as happened to coffee in the late 1990s after Vietnam charged into coffee farming, causing a global glut. If a quinoa glut drove prices low enough, Andean farmers' investments in land and processing infrastructure would be wiped out.
Ugh. Like every other globally traded commodity foodstuff, quinoa is devilishly complicated and prone to tragedy. For now, I'll keep eating it in moderation, but I won't take it for granted. Or stop trying to learn more about it—and neither should any of it eaters, vegan or not. Meanwhile, I'm wondering what unpalatable truths might be lurking within .
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за сравнение:
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Кой каквото иска да яде бе..
Само да не го натрапва на другите.
Или пък да изисква това или онова да не се ядяло в негово присъствие.
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Аз бих я сравнил с нашенското просо, по-си отиват и са подобни храни. Разбира се ще предпочета просото, поне докато киноата не почне да се сee тук.
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Обичам боба, леба и уеба !
NinJah
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(старо куче)