Quinoa is considered in the imperialist countries as a so-called "superfood", because it is high in protein and has little fat. The rich enjoy the cereal in starred restaurants with truffles and other absurdly expensive foods. Petty-bourgeois organic fans feel especially healthy and hip when they pile quinoa on their plates instead of boring usual rice, which they then can post on Social Media.
And at the same time, they feel like they would be doing something good for the world, because they are helping the poor farmers in Latin America. The so-called "quinoa boom" is said to have helped a lot of farmers to prosperity, who previously lived in wretched poverty. And it's true: there was a quinoa boom. But certainly not to the benefit of the poor peasants, who always cultivated the now trendy grain in the Andean region, especially in Bolivia and Peru. Because even if in Europe and North America huge sums are paid for quinoa, it is not the peasants who earn themselves golden noses. It is the imperialist bourgeoisie that takes advantage of the poverty in the oppressed nations and, for a few cents, buys the harvest products and sells them for many Euros to hedonistic petty bourgeois individuals.
A brief overview of the development of the quinoa cultivation: For centuries, in the Andean region quinoa was cultivated, mainly for personal needs. The commercialization of quinoa as a "superfood" is a development of the last 10 years. Bolivia was the main producer of quinoa, which was suddenly known and sought after in the imperialist countries. Peru soon dissolved Bolivia as the main producer, where the ruling classes promoted and subsidized industrial cultivation. Then others wanted a piece of the cake aswell, the old seed was genetically modified to be grown in other regions of the world, such as the USA and Canada. The result was a rapid decline in prices, many farmers in Bolivia could no longer live on the quinoa cultivation, could not even afford to eat their grown cereals themselves. The Peruvian peasants probably expect the same fate, the boom that had ended in Bolivia two years ago, is now here in its last moves as well. What is cynically called "a history of globalization" in the bourgeois media only shows once again that as long as there is an imperialist world order based on exploitation and oppression to ensure prosperity of only a few, every (short-term) economic upswing serves only one class, the ruling classes, the bourgeoisie. But it has, as Marx and Engels recognized, created its own gravedigger, the proletariat. And the people’s masses are constantly working on the overthrow of imperialism, they are developing people's wars, which is led in Peru by the Communist Party of Peru and will overcome all obstacles and will always uphold the red flag of the proletarian world revolution.
