Matthew Turetsky at JSTOR:
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the International Year of Quinoa (IYQ), a celebratory initiative created by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. At the inaugural 2013 IYQ, Evo Morales, then president of Bolivia, proclaimed that quinoa was “an ancestral gift from the Andes to the world.” The IYQ capitalized on the growing international interest in this Indigenous “superfood” to promote quinoa as a nutrient-dense, sustainable, and culturally rich alternative to common Western grains.
The Secretary General of the UN hoped that quinoa’s excellent environmental adaptability would enable farmers in places such as Kenya, India, and and Europe to start growing the indigenous Andean grain. Promoters, first agricultural scientists and then government officials and corporate marketers, transformed the reputation of quinoa into a “miracle food” that could solve intractable problems like global malnutrition and crop failure.
more here.