BOLIVIA: Quandary...Over Quinoa.

NYTIMES / S. ROMERO and S. SHAHRIARI

"...demand for quinoa (pronounced KEE-no-ah) is soaring in rich countries, as American and European consumers discover the “lost crop” of the Incas. The surge has helped raise farmers’ incomes here in one of the hemisphere’s poorest countries. But there has been a notable trade-off: Fewer Bolivians can now afford it, hastening their embrace of cheaper, processed foods and raising fears of malnutrition in a country that has long struggled with it."

BOLIVIA: Nutritious Quinoa Becomes Promising Trendy Export.

GLOBAL POST/    "...only in the past five years has its(quinoa) value to farmers jumped through the roof, with international markets suddenly taking an interest in this nutritious food. This demand has changed the lives of quinoa farmers in Bolivia, which is the world’s largest quinoa exporter.
Light, nutty-tasting quinoa is not a grain; it’s a chenopod, related to beets and spinach. With more protein and fat and fewer carbohydrates than equal amounts of corn or rice, it’s becoming a popular health food. But quinoa’s most surprising nutritional aspect is a balance of amino acids, including lysine, found in precious few other plants." And..." In the 1980s, 100 pounds of quinoa sold for $7 inside Bolivia. Now the same amount of high-quality organic quinoa can sell for more than $100 to vendors in the United States or Europe."