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Creator

• Ofstehage, Andrew
  • College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Anthropology

Abstract

• Quinoa farmers in San Agustin, Bolivia facethe dilemma of producing for a growing internationalmarket while defending their community interests andresources, meeting their basic household needs, and makinga profit. Farmers responded to a changing market in the1970s by creating committees in defense of quinoa andfarmer cooperatives to represent their interests and maximizeeconomic returns. Today farmer cooperatives offerhigh, stable prices, politically represent farmers, and aremajor quinoa exporters, but intermediaries continue to playan important role in the local economy. Meanwhile, somefarmers rebuff the national cooperatives and intermediariesin favor of a denomination of origin and closer associationwith local cooperatives. This article, based on 4 months ofethnographic research, explores the reasons for the continuedpresence of intermediaries on the market landscapeand how farmers have worked to create a quinoa economyembedded with fair trade values. Farmers demand stableprices, flexible standards, provision of services, andpromises of maintaining the distinctive qualities of SanAgustin quinoa. They frame their trades in economic,utility, and solidarity terms to reflect their livelihoodstrategies, farming capabilities, and personal concepts offair trade. Meanwhile cooperatives, development initiatives,and intermediaries each argue that their particularbuying practices allow farmers to attain household goods,credit, and cash for food and economic security.

Date of publication

• 2012

Keyword

• Denomination of origin
• Fair trade
• Quinua
• Quinoa
• real
• Alternative development Value
• Intermediaries
• Bolivia

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.17615/remd-p441

Identifier

• https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-012-9371-0

Related resource URL

• http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10460-012-9371-0

Resource type

• Article

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Journal title

• Journal of Agriculture and Human Values

Journal volume

• 29

Journal issue

• 4

Page start

• 441

Page end

• 454

Version

• Publisher

Date uploaded

• April 5, 2016