Middle Class Guilt Now Extends To Quinoa

Middle class, university educated lefties tacitly tell us that people who are not white and educated cannot be held to the same standards of responsibility as the rest of us, either on a personal or collective level.

If a white man is a drunk who beats his wife and kids, he is an ogre. If a black man does it, it’s because he’s been oppressed by the racism inherent in our social structure and it is white people who really bear the ultimate blame.

White Westerners who mine coal are environmental vandals. The Asians who buy and burn it somehow escape censure. They wouldn’t if they were white Westerners.

Conversely, the Arabs who mine the oil are not environmental vandals. White Westerners are because of their rampant consumption.

Western societies who gear certain industries toward earning export revenue at the expense of higher prices for their own population have been hijacked by greedy, capitalist buccaneers. Non-Western societies who do the same have been hijacked by greedy, (Western) capitalist buccaneers, who co-opt local elites and oppress the remainder of the indigenous population. If Western societies do it, the corruption is internal. If non-Western societies do it, the corruption is external.

Anyone with even a modicum of non-white ancestry thoroughly deserves all their gains in life. In fact, any achievements are that much greater, having been made in the face of a constant struggle against racism … and if it’s a woman, sexism as well.

Everyone who is white and educated should feel guilty for any gains in their life, particularly material ones. Consumption of any good or service should be accompanied initially by self loathing, then neurotic dithering over which is the most “socially responsible”, followed by an overtly smug air of superiority for making the “correct” choice.

Westerners’ consumption of quinoa is the latest scourge of the noble, oppressed masses, as brown people in Peru and Bolivia suffer malnutrition due to rising local prices for their staple grain.

The original perpetrator of this hand wringing political piety appears to be (surprise) from the Guardian’s stable of secular, lefty preachers. Joanna Blythman churns out textbook cant:

“The quinoa trade is yet another troubling example of a damaging north-south exchange.”

She then goes on to tell us that

“NGOs report that asparagus labourers toil in sub-standard conditions and cannot afford to feed their children while fat cat exporters and foreign supermarkets cream off the profits. That's the pedigree of all those bunches of pricy spears on supermarket shelves.”

Right on, Joanna!

Asparagus is a source of even greater Western guilt than quinoa, because Western consumption is destroying Peru’s water security by effectively importing their scarce water.

So you don’t cook with asparagus any more, Joanna? Or do you only buy it from a “local market”?

Like most university educated, Western, middle class, dilettante lefties, Joanna Blythman is an inveterate snob, only wishing to drink her coffee at “indie, artisan” coffee shops like “Tazza D'Oro in Rome or Caffè Pirona in Trieste”. (I’m so cultured, I even know the best cafes in Italy. Not bad for a Glasgow girl, especially one who’s had a touch of the tar brush).

Of course, if you make lots of money writing books on the evils of supermarket chains and GM foods, you can afford “ethically grown” coffee at boutique cafes.

If you really cared about the environment and the poor people in the third world who will suffer the most from climate change Joanna, you’d have written ebooks. But they don’t sell as well, do they? Fuck the trees and the CO₂ when it comes to paying for my nice house, clothes and furniture, gourmet food and trips to Europe to drink artisan coffee, not to mention my cleaner, gardener, masseuse …

It is of course impossible to expect the Peruvians and Bolivians to be responsible for their own economic management, because they are poor little brown people.

If quinoa farmers respond to undersupply by demanding higher prices and other farmers convert to quinoa, it’s all our fault as consumers that their governments do not use the tax system to purchase a quota of quinoa for local distribution at subsidized prices, or establish national corporations to guarantee minimum prices for quinoa growers and manage the exports. Isn’t the latter the type of economic model lefties advocate?

Why are Peruvians and Bolivians not responsible for their own economies? Why are their farmers not responsible for their own choices? In fact, for many quinoa farmers, it’s the first time in their lives they have made decent incomes, as even the Guardian tells us.

Why are their governments not responsible for stabilizing local prices?

“Oh, but those countries are ruled by oppressive elites, co-opted and kept in place by American corporate imperialism.” Actually, it’s Spanish imperialism which installed the elites in Peru and Bolivia. The Inca weren’t exactly a free, egalitarian society either.

There probably are already comparatively wealthy Peruvians and Bolivians making good money from quinoa exports. However, the Guardian article quotes a Peruvian farmer, who tells us that she now sells her quinoa for $2 / kg, up from 25c / kg a few years ago. So it does appear that poor farmers are also benefiting from increased demand and making a conscious choice to cultivate for export.

If people in towns and cities want subsidised quinoa, they need to advocate for that economic policy. However, that’s the Peruvians’ and Bolivians’ business.

The development of stable, liberal democracy has almost always required the growth of a large middle class, many of whom ultimately come from the agrarian sector. As these sections of society gain more economic power, they are able to successfully demand more political power.

Is Joanna Blythman suggesting we halt the economic growth and hence true enfranchisement of Peruvian and Bolivian farmers? Because that will be the outcome if Westerners decrease their quinoa consumption to the point where it has a material effect on prices. Does she believe it is our role to decide on the appropriate distribution of income and wealth in Peruvian and Bolivian society?

Here’s what will really happen:

Western countries with high plains like Canada, the USA and Australia will start growing quinoa for both domestic and export markets. The price of quinoa will fall and eventually fluctuate (in real terms) in a semi stable interval, sporadically jumping if harvests fail. Local quinoa prices in Peru and Bolivia will fall and domestic consumption will again increase.

The lead time on this will probably be five to ten years, unless quinoa is actually just a fad and returns to a niche food, in which case prices will fall rapidly as people like Joanna Blythman encourage their dopey followers to eat the next, latest “super food”.

Does Joanna Blythman really want to deny Peruvian and Bolivian farmers this probably once off opportunity to permanently increase their wealth? To buy better goods? To have better houses?

No, we want them to stay poor and disenfranchised. Otherwise, there will be no victims of American, corporate imperialist oppression for us to champion.

I wonder who Joanna Blythman would blame if her heroic Palestinian farmers succeed in creating an export industry and drive up local prices.

The Jews, of course!