Our Little Dream...

I am happy to announce that my professional reason for being in Puno (of course many of you know my personal rational) has begun to take life. More than a year ago, Qiqe and I spoke of meshing our passions: his love of high class, highland Peruvian cuisine and mine for rural local development in indigenous society.

Question-What do you get when you unite a Peruvian Restauranteur...soon-to-be Cordon Bleu Chef with a Fulbright Scholar?

Answer- A Socially Consientious Dining Experience!

We had our first planning meeting with IRPA, the Rural Institute for Andean Progress, made up of a team of agronomist and microfinanzers who will help us develop our Fair Trade Quinua Project, Samka (which means dream in Aymara).

As some of you know, quinoa is a very impressive grain that originates from the Andes. It is high in protein, and is a great healthy substitute to rice and pastas. If you enter a Whole Foods or other organic food store you will certainly see quinoa. But look closely, and you will notice that the majority of the grain comes from Bolivia :( Our goal is to change this tendency and develop a fair trade, organic market on the Peruvian side of the border.

Our project is a bit different, though, than a typical fair trade effort. Generally, fair trade supports producers by providing them a fair price for their quinoa, incluiding a premium above the market price. This premium is used (as designated by the association of producers) for local development projects. In this case, though, the producers have a large market, normally in Europe or the US, that supports their efforts.

As we are beginning a this project, with completely inexperienced producers and a NGO that has never worked under the stringent guidelines of Fair Trade, Qiqe and I are offering a different approach supporting the growth of the Fair Trade, organic, quinoa market.

First, we will serve as a local market, to ensure income for the producers at a fair price (at or above the local market level).

Next, we will raise the price (2-3 soles) on our plates that present the quinua (as soup, taboule, qiunotto) in order to funnel the extra earnings into a fund for projects in the community. Its a little different than the general fair trade model, providing upfront premium, as we are trying to provide incentive and motivation to our producers as well as our clients in the project.

I will have more information to come, but that is the basic idea of the project. We will market our effort in our restaurant and our website. After the producers are selected (by the local NGO), Qiqe and I will meet with them in order to iniciate the work before the planting season (in late August).