The Vegan Quinoa "Superfood" Demand is Destroying Bolivia
time.com
I actually kind of felt like this deserved a post on its own because I think not many people realize that the demand for quinoa, which provides a ridiculously expensive source of all the essential amino acids and central to the “new” vegan diet, is causing near anarchy in Bolivia as the prices get driven up and up.
According to one farmer quoted in the story, “Quinoa was always comida para los Indios [food for Indians.] Today it’s food for the world’s richest.”
Fights over territory previously considered worthless is now being fought over as prime land for growing the new cash crop, and have resulted in kidnappings, injuries, and bombings.
It’s also destroying the environment, since everyone is selling their llamas and planting quinoa instead, which is stripping the soil from overfarming and lack of llama poop for fertilizer.
I’m sick and tired of vegans claiming that their food exists in a vacuum. I mean, are these people THIS far removed from understanding that we all exist in nature? That your stupid fucking quinoa, your excuse to be more militant than ever, more elitist than ever, demanding everyone adhere to your dubious moral convictions, is destroying a country’s economy AND ecosystem? Because of a sudden, insatiable demand for their Indigenous peoples’ food?
Half the world’s quinoa supply is grown in Bolivia.
“Does he love me? Does he love anyone more than me? Does he love me more than I love him? Perhaps all the questions we ask of love, to measure, test, probe and save it, have the additional effect of cutting it short. Perhaps the reason we are unable to love is that we yearn to be loved, that is, we demand something from our partner instead of delivering ourselves up to him demand-free and asking for nothing but his company.”
—The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera“Surrender becomes so much easier when you realize the fleeting nature of all experiences and that the world cannot give you anything of lasting value. You then continue to meet people, to be involved in experiences and activities, but without the wants and fears of the egoic self. That is to say, you no longer demand that a situation, person, place, or event should satisfy you or make you happy. Its passing and imperfect nature is allowed to be. And the miracle is that when you are no longer placing an impossible demand on it, every situation, person, place, or event becomes not only satisfying but also more harmonious, more peaceful. ”
—Eckhart Tolle
European, Chinese copper demand firm -Aurubis
* Some caution in new orders from some customers notedHAMBURG, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Chinese and European copper demand remains firm which should help support global prices, Aurubis , Europe’s biggest copper producer, said on Tuesday.”There is little to indicate a sharp drop in demand just now,” Aurubis said in a report. “In view of the continuing inadequate level of copper production, the copper price should therefore be fundamentally well buttressed against any decrease.”Euro zone industrial activity remains high despite the sovereign debt crisis, it said. London Metal Exchange copper stocks have also fallen.”This leads to the impression that there is a discrepancy between the ‘perceived’ crisis and actual business operations, though economic weaknesses will indeed become more noticeable in the future,” it said.The drop in LME copper prices in past weeks, sometimes falling below $7,000 a tonne, has opened an arbitrage window for Chinese importers, it said. Chinese importers traditionally buy more when LME prices fall below Chinese markets.This window allowed Chinese imports of raw copper and copper products to climb by almost 12 percent in September compared with the previous month, it said.”This is the highest level in 16 months, and the trend is expected to continue,” it said. “That is indicated particularly by the amount of copper in LME warehouses waiting to be shipped: most of the total of 51,850 tonnes of cathodes is waiting at South Korean sites to be delivered to China.”But it said some customers were becoming more reserved about copper purchasing which was adding to difficulties assessing European demand.”Customers have become noticeably more cautious in the way they order,” it said. “They are avoiding stockpiling copper even more than before, particularly as the year draws to an end, their sights are set on the shorter term, and they are more interested in flexible deliveries, in order to be able to respond immediately to changes in their order books.”
