The Mother Grain (2014)

• 53%
• 2014
• Documentary
• Michael Wilcox

The Mother Grain is a photo-book and documentary project about the rapid rise in popularity of quinoa and is focused on the lives and methods of the local Aymara and Quechua Bolivian farmers, who are descended from the Incas. Their Incan ancestors grew quinoa in the same area of the Andes Mountains as today's farmers, and treated the grain with religious reverence. Even though Spanish Conquistadors of the 16th Century suppressed quinoa growth, cultivation and honoring of the food continued in small isolated communities until the present day. As the international consumption of quinoa rises, we look at how this increased demand is affecting the farmers. Bear Witness Pictures travelled to Bolivia and the quinoa growing communities surrounding the Salar de Uyuni, witnessing their lives first hand as we tell the story of quinoa from the perspective of the farmer.