7/05/21

Hayden-Ann Rudolfo
Superfoods Summary

Is Healthy Eating Just Hype? Superfoods such as quinoa, goji berries and chia
seeds are just three of the common superfoods in big demand for their nutritional
credentials, but what benefits do they really bring to the body? The Superfood
craze started in the US and now there are more restaurants like it around the world.
Florian Klar of Bochum opened the first superfood bistro in the Ruhr region about
a year ago. He buys in all types of food, using local suppliers when he can, but he
also uses exotic superfoods in his meals which recipes he came up with himself.
But healthy doesn’t necessarily mean sustainable; Quinoa for example, is harvested
on salt flats in Bolivien where it has always been a staple food and when the
superfood boom started in 2014, the price for quinoa went through the roof, back
then even small villages like Cerro Grande profited from the trend. The expansion
of quinoa farming on the planes also led major fluctuations to its price and the hill
farmers suffer because they can’t compete and don’t get paid more despite the
additional effort involved in working on the hillsides. The problem they see with
quinoa creating fast, high land deserts, is going on everywhere around the world.
Take avocado for example, as a superfood it’s grown as a monoculture on large
farms but once profits become the priority, short term economic interests override
everything else. Hardly anyone thinks of what would happen to the ecosystems and
locals long term from such vast and mechanical production. European consumers
are relatively unaware of the farmers’ problems while the superfood selections in
their supermarkets keeps on growing. Between 2014 and 2016, the turnover
generate by superfoods in Germany rose from €1.4M to €42.6M, the best seller is
chia, which accounts for 62% of sales. The term superfood isn’t a registered
trademark but it does suggest a positive effect on consumer health but that’s not
always the case. “ ‘100% natural’, doesn’t mean 100% healthy.” says Nutrition
Specialist, Dr. Matthias Riedl. Sustainability has to become a quinoa farming
standard if the ecosystems in Bolivia’s highlands are to remain intact and offer
their human and animal inhabitants a viable, long-term future. How is the
superfood boom influencing agriculture and business?