Buzz of the Nation

Irish Potato Famine

Nature or human made disaster?

Here is a modern example of a crop boom that is leaving out the citizens who grow it.
(from Federal Reserve Bank - www.frbsf.org/education)

Quinoa Boom

A resource via the Council for Economic Education (CEE)

Quinoa is considered by many to be a “super food,” so nutritious that 2013 has been designated Quinoa Year by the U.N. 90% of the world’s supply comes from three countries: Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. This high protein, low-fat food has become so wildly popular world-wide that the price has increased by 600% since the year 2000. Like many food phenomenons, quinoa started at the subsistence level millennia ago as a staple of ancient Incan people. But the intense level of demand has now created two dilemmas: the citizens can’t afford their own crop anymore and though the nations who grow it have seen a surge in economic growth, there has been a decline in economic development. This is an indicator of elements such as education and healthcare.

Have your students read these two articles and answer the following questions:

• Quinoa boom offers hard lesson in food economics
• Quinoa: Economic Growth Hindering Economic Development

1. Using market analysis (supply and demand), describe the changes in the quinoa market since 2000.
2. Why can it be said that "economic development is not a necessary condition for economic growth to occur?”
3. Why is it suspected that economic development has declined in these Andean countries?
4. Are there other examples of staple crops becoming mass-produced, and is it always a negative thing for the country of origin? Explain.

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