The promise and peril of “miracle crops” as vehicles for sustainable development

Abstract

First paragraph:

In The Quinoa Bust: The Making and Unmaking of an Andean Miracle Crop, cultural anthropologist Emma McDonell describes the emergence of quinoa as a global commodity, tracing its transfor­mation from a staple crop of the Andean Altiplano to a “miracle food” sold at grocery stores world­wide. Quinoa’s transformation is driven by its promise to alleviate poverty among indigenous smallholders in the Altiplano while at the same time addressing malnutrition in urban communities in the region. McDonell charts how these at times contradictory objectives are pursued by a cast of actors along the global supply chain, each project­ing and acting on their own aspirations for quinoa. Drawing on deep ethnographic work, she follows farmers, cooperatives, técnicos (private extension agents), processors, and buyers in Puno, Peru, over a 10-year period as they navigate the volatile quinoa economy. . . .