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UN / YEAR OF QUINOA
STORY: UN / YEAR OF QUINOA
TRT: 4.59
SOURCE: IFAD
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE SPANISH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 - 20 DECEMBER 2012, LAKE TITICACA AND LA PAZ, BOLIVIA
1. Wide shot, quinoa farmers
2. Med shot, weeding
3. Close up, quinoa plants
4. Wide shot, woman walking
5. Wide shot, woman herding sheep
6. Wide shot, woman grinding quinoa
7. Med shot, woman grinding quinoa
8. Close up, woman’s face
9. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Wilfredo Rojas, Coordinator, PROINPA Foundation:
“Quinoa is 60 percent starch and because of this high content of starch you can make puddings, flans. And also its high content of water makes quinoa a great product to make pasta.”
10. Med shot, woman mixing flour
11. Close up, hand mixing flour
12. Close up, hand shaping pasta
13. Close up, quinoa pasta
14. Med shot, woman cooking quinoa
15. Close up, potatoes and cooked quinoa shapes
16. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Wilfredo Rojas, Coordinator, PROINPA Foundation:
“The farm families of the north Altiplano farm small plots and produce small quantities of quinoa. With the project’s help, these families have been connected to small businesses in La Paz that are processing quinoa into products.”
17. Wide shot, La Paz Presidential Palace
18. Wide shot, exterior Alexander Coffee
19. Med shot, quinoa cake
20. Close up, cutting quinoa cake
21. Close up, serving quinoa cake
22. Wide shot, Pamy Velez in restaurant kitchen
23. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pamy Quezada Velez, CEO, Alexander Coffee:
“In the beginning it was hard to change the mentality but more people are opening up to the idea and we’re doing well with quinoa.”
24. Close up, quinoa wrap
25. Med shot, quinoa cookies
26. Med shot, quinoa salad being served
27. Wide shot, Lake Titicaca
28. Pan left, quinoa storage
29. Close up, quinoa being poured
30. Close up, farmers leaving room
31. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Elias Vargas, Farmer:
“Now people everywhere are buying quinoa. In La Paz they are sell it in the markets. It’s everywhere. For that reason we are also able to sell small quantities. With that money we sustain our families.”
32. Wide shot, teaching
33. Med shot, farmers listening
34. Close up, farmers listening
35. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Wilfredo Rojas, Coordinator, PROINPA Foundation:
“Companies that deal with quinoa in Bolivia are beginning to transform the quinoa into different products and export them, and we’re starting to better understand and study the potential of this food. And also identify which varieties are good for what.”
36. Pan left, quinoa varieties
37. Close up, red quinoa poured into bag
38. Wide shot, woman selling quinoa
This month marks the start of the International Year of the quinoa, a highly nutritious food crop that was domesticated on the high plains of Bolivia and Peru thousands of years ago. Quinoa was awarded its own year because of its potential to improve food security in many countries especially as climate conditions change around the world.
With an estimated 3,100 varieties, quinoa can grow under extremely harsh conditions, withstanding temperatures from - 8 ° C to 38 ° C. It can also be grown up to 4,000 meters above sea level.
Despite quinoa's long history in the Andes; it has only been within the last decade that international markets have taken an interest. With more protein and fat and fewer carbohydrates than equal amounts of corn or rice, quinoa has become a popular health food. But many believe it has a long way to go before it reaches its full potential as a food product.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Wilfredo Rojas, Coordinator, PROINPA Foundation: (Fundación Promoción e Investigación de Productos Andinos - Foundation for the Promotion and Investigation of Andean Produce)
“Quinoa is 60 percent starch and because of this high content of starch you can make puddings, flans. And also its high content of water makes quinoa a great product to make pasta.”
Despite these multiple uses quinoa is not a grain, it’s a chenopod related to beets and spinach.
Bolivia is the world’s largest exporter of quinoa. Until recently, however, Bolivians themselves believed it was a “poor man’s” food and preferred to eat imported wheat and rice.
Now, thanks to a decade-long project supported by the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), quinoa’s reputation within Bolivia is changing.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Wilfredo Rojas, Coordinator, PROINPA Foundation:
“The farm families of the north Altiplano farm small plots and produce small quantities of quinoa. With the project’s help, these families have been connected to small businesses in La Paz that are processing quinoa into products.”
Many of these products, like this cake sold at Alexander Coffee shops, have done a lot to boost quinoa’s popularity, particularly among the country’s growing middle class.
Pamy Velez is Alexander Coffee’s founder and CEO.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pamy Quezada Velez, CEO, Alexander Coffee:
“In the beginning it was hard to change the mentality but more people are opening up to the idea and we’re doing well with quinoa.”
Ten Alexander Coffee shops now serve quinoa in salads, wraps and desserts. The company bakery produces more than 1,000 quinoa chocolate chip cookies a day.
And thanks to the project’s focus on building partnerships, Alexander Coffee buys all its quinoa from small farmers like Elias Vargas and Viviana Herrera whose fields line the edges of Lake Titicaca, the world’s highest body of water.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Elias Vargas, Farmer:
“Now people everywhere are buying quinoa. In La Paz they are sell it in the markets. It’s everywhere. For that reason we are also able to sell small quantities. With that money we sustain our families.”
At 4,000 meters above sea level, farmers here have always struggled to earn a living. And while they don’t grow enough quinoa to sell to foreign markets, increased domestic consumption offer new opportunities for farmers and hope for preserving quinoa’s biodiversity.
SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Wilfredo Rojas, Coordinator, PROINPA Foundation:
“Companies that deal with quinoa in Bolivia are beginning to transform the quinoa into different products and export them, and we’re starting to better understand and study the potential of this food. And also identify which varieties are good for what.”
Unlike the mono crop grown for export in the south, Bolivia’s small farmers in the north grow many varieties of quinoa.
And in the end it’s hoped connecting small farmers directly to small businesses that are searching for a specific variety of quinoa will help preserve biodiversity and the future of this important global food crop.
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